The Legend of Lyric
by girlanachr0n1sm
Summary: Link, the Hero of Time, youngest of three, nearly dies at the hands of his shadow-self in the Water Temple, inciting his sister, Lyric, to go after the shadow creature, destroying the thing that nearly killed her brother and proving her mettle as a fighter in one stroke. However, things are not quite as they seem…
1. Chapter 1

**The Legend of Lyric  
>Chapter 1<br>~Sister~  
><strong>

A page from Lyric's journal:

_I am going to kill him.  
>I've already decided on how. A single, sharp sword thrust through the heart, so I can see the light leave his eyes. Then I will cut off his head and not only save my brother the hassle of having to re-fight his dark reflection in the Water Temple, but I will finally prove my skill as a fighter once and for all, prove I can fight by his side.<br>If only it could ever be that simple._

* * *

><p>~ Lyric crept along the hallway of the Lakeside laboratory, where they had taken her brother after Dark Link had nearly killed him.<br>_~ Dark Link, indeed_, she mentally scoffed. _How can such an evil creature bear the same name as my brother? This thing was created by Ganondorf to thwart Link in his quest to save Hyrule from his evil._ She hesitated outside the door of his room. She could hear him snoring gently and smiled. _Well, his plan has failed, and when Dark meets me, he's not going to know what hit him until it's too late.  
>~ But first, I need Link's Iron Boots.<em> She peered around the corner, into the room where Link was resting. She had to stifle a gasp. He just looked so bad! He had cuts on almost every inch of his skin, and bruises up and down both arms. His tunic, armour, and gear were piled neatly in a corner of the room, atop a chair. She spied his Iron Boots sitting together beneath it. There was nobody else around.  
><em>~ It's now or never,<em> Lyric thought. She slipped silently over the threshold, then hesitated, looking at her brother again.  
><em>If I don't get back before he heals enough to come after me, there'll be hell to pay.<em> She shook her head. Thoughts like that were not going to help her. She would just have to be quick, and get back before he came in to pull her out. Resolved once more, she crept to the chair, hefted the Iron Boots into her infinity bag, and crept out again, not looking back.

* * *

><p>~ Dark sat alone in the Room of Illusions, absentmindedly fiddling with his sword, consumed by guilt.<br>~ He had felt the other one coming for him, heard him lower and raise the water levels in the Temple, until he finally got to the Room of Illusion. Dark had harboured no ill will against the Other until he stepped into the room. Dark had suddenly felt a fierce burning on every inch of his skin. Consumed by pain, he could recall nothing more, until the pain receded. When he finally awoke, he looked down, horrified, to see his black sword stained with blood. The blood of a boy who looked a hell of a lot like him- dressed in a blue tunic - nearly dead. Suddenly a figure appeared, dressed in blue and white, his face covered by a cloth - grabbed the Other, and disappeared again.  
><em>~ What the hell was that burning?<em> He wondered. _I have never felt that before. Seven years I have waited in this Temple, and for what? Is that what I was made for? To kill the one who looks like me?_ He sighed. Wondering was useless, but his mind was pulled back to the subject all the same. This event was a solitary stone tossed carelessly into a glassy lake, rippling the surface, interrupting the monotonous, endless waiting. He sighed again, frustrated. _I have such strange things…memories, inside my head_. He recalled, dimly, the moment he was created.

_~ A huge man with green skin, dressed in black stood over him. Dark was shivering, naked. The man waved a hand carelessly, and shadows formed around Dark, dressing him in a tunic and pants of jet black.  
>~ You are mine," the man told him with an evil chuckle. But the man did not notice the woman hovering behind him, almost invisible. Her hair was vividly pink, and she wore almost nothing at all.<br>- "Your destiny is to be more than his plaything," she whispered in a voice only he could hear. The green-skinned man turned and walked away without a backward glance. The woman smiled kindly at Dark, then leaned down and kissed him. She breathed something into him. Not life, not air, but something more. His world exploded with pain, and everything faded to black._

~ When he had finally come to, he was already in the Room of Illusions. Here he had waited for seven years, all alone. Mentally, he shook himself. _If I belong to the man in black, what does that mean for me? I know he was evil. I **know** it. I want nothing to do with this shit. But can I still be good, if someone so evil created me?_

* * *

><p>~ Lyric went back to her room to retrieve her gear. Now that she had the Iron Boots, she wasn't about to waste any more time. She had fought through most of the other Temples, trying to prove her skill as a fighter, but everything she did, Link had already done. And there were no bosses to defeat at the end. She huffed, frustrated by the mere thought of it. <em>I am as good as any of them!<em> She thought vehemently. _Being a woman does not make me any less.  
><em>~ Both the Gorons, and more recently, the Zoras, had refused to aid her. Neither would sell her the tunics needed to survive the Fire or Water Temples. The Great Fairy of Magic herself, wild fuchsia hair flowing in all directions, stepped in and granted Lyric a special purple tunic, with the specific qualities of both the red and blue tunics sewn into one garment. Even Link, the Savior of Hyrule, the Hero of Time, had no such tunic.  
>~ Lyric stuffed everything she would need into her infinity bag, a bag that could hold an endless amount of items. Deku nuts, arrows, bow, bombs, her own Hookshot, modeled after the one Link had in his own infinity pack.<br>~ She had smuggled it down to the smithy one hot afternoon when her brothers had been sparring out on the front lawn. The smithy had studied it for twenty minutes, made some haphazard notes, then handed it back to her and told her to come back to him in two days. The smithy loved oddball projects such as this one, and she knew he would work hard to create an identical working hookshot. She snuck it back to her room only to be discovered. Link had been standing in his room, glaring at her. Covered in sweat and dirt, arms crossed, he looked formidable, despite the fact that he was three years her junior.  
>~ "What is your obsession with going through my stuff?" he'd demanded of her. He snatched the hookshot out of her hands before she could explain. "Stay out of my room!" he'd yelled, before slamming the door in her face.<br>Lyric shook her head, bringing herself back to the present. Here, now, her room, about to head off into the Water Temple.  
><em>~ Pay attention!<em> She chided herself. _This is not a game. Not having your focus on the task at hand could get you killed. _She tossed off the yellow tunic and matching cap that she usually wore, and donned the purple ones. She strapped her belt around her slim waist, then slung on her sword and shield.  
>~ She had saved up, rupee by rupee to get that shield. <em>Something they offered my brother for free.<em> Her sword, the _Valkyrie Sword_, was a gift from the Great Fairy of Power. She had climbed Death Mountain in her brother's footsteps to see her and request her aid. The Great Fairly had indeed offered her help, in the form of the Sword.  
>~ "Go and see my sister," she had instructed. "She will give you magic to help you in your quest."<br>~ She had gone, and almost died from the effort of trying not to spontaneously combust in the Crater. She made it to the Great Fairy, and was given two gifts: magic, as promised, and the purple tunic.  
>~ "For resisting the effect of the heat, and for breathing underwater," the Fairy had told her with a mischievous smile. "May it aid you in your mission."<br>~ Lyric smiled to herself at the memory. The Fairies seemed to be willing to let her try her strength, to prove herself as something more than a kitchen maid, more than Link's sister, more than a shadow in his limelight.  
>~ She packed two bottled fairies, little pink ones that looked like Link's Navi. She also packed a bottle of thick, acid green potion. <em>I'll not go into the Water Temple without a way to restore my magic, should I deplete it. I am no fool.<em> She chuckled to herself at the thought. Finally packed, she quietly let herself out of the room that was hers as long as Link was here recovering. She took the stairs two at a time, and before she could chicken out, walked out the door of the laboratory, into the warm, later afternoon sun.  
><em>~ This is it<em>, she thought, walking down the lake-bed of the nearly dried-up lake. _This is the day I will prove myself in my brothers' eyes._ She smiled with anticipation.  
>~ Lyric reached the edge of the water, then sat down and yanked off her own boots before pulling on the Iron Boots. She stuffed her boots into the infinity bag and stood. <em>These things weigh a freaking ton,<em> she thought. Slowly, she clomped her way down into the water. She was up to her neck when she stopped. Would the purple tunic work as well as she'd been told? She certainly hoped so. She started forward again, unconsciously holding her breath until the water had entirely covered her head. Then she breathed out, and took a shaky breath in. As soon as the water moved past her lips, it turned to air, and she gasped in a breath in delight.  
>~ "This is incredible!" she exclaimed, but the words were muffled by the water. If she hadn't had on Iron Boots, she would have joyfully skipped right into the Water Temple. Instead she satisfied herself with a gleeful smile, then continued determinedly ahead.<p>

* * *

><p>~ Inside the Room of Illusions, Dark sat up straight, terrified.<br>~ "Someone is coming," he whispered to the empty air around him. "Give me the strength not to give in to the evil that created me."


	2. Chapter 2

**The Legend of Lyric  
>Chapter 2<br>~Dark Link~  
><strong>

~ Lyric looked up. _How the hell am I supposed to get up there? I could take off the Iron Boots, I guess. But what a pain. How did Link constantly switch shoes like this?_ She sat down once more and yanked off one Iron Boot, slid her foot into the regular soft leather boot, then the other. She almost floated to the surface without the boots to weigh her down, and briefly considered leaving them there, but decided against it.  
>~ She managed to get the Boots back into the infinity bag just as her head broke the surface of the water within the Temple. She quickly swam to the edge and hauled herself out. She expected to have to fight in heavy, soggy clothes, but she was completely dry from head to toe, including her boots. She smiled. <em>I'm guessing that's part of the Fairy's magic. Nice!<br>~ _She took a few cautious steps into the Temple and glanced around. The air smelled faintly of mildew and perpetual dampness, and she fought the urge to sneeze. There was a tall tower directly in front of her, and a blue Tektite sitting on the ledge. It hadn't spotted her yet, so she silently retrieved her bow, notched and arrow, aimed, and shot.  
>~ The arrow went straight through the creature's red eye, and it died immediately, tipping sideways into the water. She smiled again. Lyric was skilled with a bow, even surpassing Link, who usually needed Navi to help him focus on the target.<br>~ She quickly stowed the bow away again and this time pulled out the rough map she had secretly scribbled from her brother's hasty, jumbled description of the Water Temple, its many floors, and where exactly she could find the Dark Link creature. She peered closely at it, trying to decipher her own messy handwriting. According to her brother, the creature's Room of Illusion was directly opposite the place she was standing. She rolled up the map and tucked it away. She reached into her bag a final time to pull out a short length of purple cloth, which she tied around the lower half of her face, covering her nose and mouth. _The least it will do,_ she thought, _is make me appear more intimidating._ Though the real reason, if she were being honest with herself, was to conceal the fact that she was a woman.  
>~ Thus disguised, she dove neatly into the deep water, surfaced, and swam quickly around the tall pillar, to the Room of Illusion. Hauling herself out of the water once more, she immediately strapped her shield to her arm and took another look around. The Temple was eerily silent, and it unnerved her. She was half-expecting some horrid monster to explode from the depths and pull her under, but the waters were still and peaceful. Finally, she turned her back on their murky depths and strode confidently to the tall black door. There was a blue button beside it in the wall. She took a deep, fortifying breath, unsheathed her sword, and slammed the button with her fist.<br>~ With an echoing grinding sound of stone-on-stone, the door slid up, and she stepped through.

* * *

><p>~ From outside his room, Dark heard a splash, the sloshing sound of someone getting out of a deep pool of water, then silence, for several minutes. Finally, there was the ominous sound of a sword being quietly drawn. The door slid up into the wall, and a slender figure stepped through. The door closed behind the interloper, and he turned, gasping, as the iron bars slid into place over the door. The Other whirled again to face the room, eyes searching for danger.<br>~ This was not the same boy that he had faced before, he was certain. The other had been taller, broader of shoulder and hip, and had a mess of blonde hair sticking out from under his blue cap. This one was shorter, more lithe, hinting at speed and agility in battle, with silky dark hair under a…lilac purple cap. _What warrior would deign to wear a tunic of that colour?_ He wondered. This warrior kept the lower half of his face covered, unlike the other, though they both shared the same shocking blue eyes.  
>~ Dark stayed in the shadows by the dead tree on the island, knowing the Other could not see him until he chose to move. Slowly, cautiously, the Other took one tentative step into the room, then another. When he realized nothing would jump out at him, the warrior relaxed slightly, and walked around the Room of Illusion in obvious wonder. Dark tried to imagine seeing it through another's eyes. It seemed to go on forever, but that was part of the magic of this room. The other man walked right past him, not even seeing him. He waited for the burning to take over his body, but nothing happened. He watched the Lilac Warrior stalk to the opposite end of the room and meet with the invisible wall. He struck it, and when it clanged like metal against his sword, he <em>laughed.<br>_~ Such a laugh.  
>~ Pure delight, amusement, incredulity. Though Dark felt no pain, though he was still conscious, he could not hold himself back any longer. The compulsion to speak could no longer be ignored.<br>~ "So you changed tunics," he sneered. He knew warriors, and knew this one would no more appreciate a kind word from him than the one he had killed. The Other whipped around, immediately on guard, shield up to deflect an attack, sword gripped tightly in his hand.  
>~ "Who's there?" the warrior demanded. "Show yourself!"<br>~ Dark was taken aback at the voice. The boy he had fought before sounded like a man, unmistakably so. This one's voice was softer, though the steel behind the words was unmistakable. He hesitated only a moment, but just as the warrior opened his mouth to say something else, Dark stepped out of the shadow cast by the dead tree.  
>~ The warriors eyes widened. "<em>You're<em> the one who nearly killed my brother?" he asked, his tone disarmed. "He described you as a shadow of himself."  
>~<em> Brother.<em> So that's why he was here. "_You're_ the one they sent to replace him?" he scoffed. "Your brother was nothing to defeat, and you'll be even easier." He hated the words, but despite the fact that he was still lucid, he couldn't seem to stop himself.  
>~ The warrior, to his credit, looked calm and unruffled. "Well then, permit me to prove you wrong." And he held up his sword, keeping his shield at mid-guard, and advanced slowly, giving Dark plenty of time to draw his own sword, and ready his shield. Dark wondered at this. <em>Why isn't he attacking? If I killed his brother, why would he give me any chance to defend myself?<em>  
>~ No sooner had he secured his shield than the answer became glaringly obvious. This warrior was <em>fast<em>. Quick as lightning, the lilac warrior lunged and slammed his sword into Dark's with a resounding clang. He had barely gotten his sword up in time to block the attack, or this boy would have sliced him open from shoulder to hip! He scrambled to keep up, for as soon as he blocked the strike, the warrior feigned left, drawing his shield down, and quickly swung right and up, catching Dark's cheek with the tip of his sword.  
>~ Dark was shocked. The other boy hadn't gotten through his guard half as quickly as this one, and Dark had at least twenty pounds of muscle on this one. He could tell from experience that the wound was shallow, and in this room, wounds healed quickly enough that it would make no difference.<br>~ He took two steps back, giving ground to the other warrior, which was against all of his instincts, but it was either step back or take another blow. Dark felt no desire to fight this warrior in his ridiculous purple tunic, and he was frantically trying to think of a way out of it without sacrificing himself.  
>~ "You're quick," he said, trying to sound as rude as he'd been before, but it came out more admiringly than he'd intended.<br>~ The lilac warrior studied him, clocking his movements. Dark refused to meet the warrior's steady gaze. "You're different than I expected," the other said at last. "My brother described you to me as a figure entirely in black, with glowing red eyes, and relentless with your sword." The warrior tilted his head at Dark. "You're not attacking me," he stated. It was no accusation, merely a statement of fact, but it hit Dark hard.  
>~<em> Why am I not?<em> He wondered. _I know what I am. It may not be my destiny to be the evil man's 'plaything,' but I am still charged with guarding this room. And,_ he thought, _I was created from evil. Perhaps I have no choice.  
><em>~ With no warning and no plan, he lunged at the warrior, who had not expected this. Still, his sword met with fabric rather than flesh as the lilac warrior twisted away at the last moment. He lunged again, and his sword crashed mercilessly against the other's. The sounds of battle echoed throughout the room.  
>~ Dark danced out of reach as the warrior lunged at him with his sword. Then, using one of his favourite tricks, leapt lithely as a cat onto the lilac warrior's blade. Dark smirked at him from his vantage point, then carefully executed a flip over the other's head, landing lightly behind him. The other whirled just in time to stop Dark's sword from cutting right into his spine. The warrior, in turn, rushed forward, blocking the swing of his sword with his shield, and sliced his blade down Dark's other cheek. Dark shoved the warrior back with a growl, then slashed at him with his sword repeatedly: left, right, left, left, right, left, right.<br>~ "_That's_ more like it!" the lilac warrior crowed, blocking his blows easily, but finding few opportunities to offer them in return. "I came here for a _fight,_ not an easy kill." The warrior suddenly slammed his shield against Dark's, forcing his arm down, and punched him in the stomach. Dark gasped for breath, and shoved the other back, hard. The warrior stumbled a little, but laughter danced in his blue eyes.  
>~ "I'll show you easy," Dark snarled, and charged the warrior, using his shield as a ram, and slammed into the warrior full-force. The warrior stumbled with a gasp, and his sword flew out of his hand. Seeing his opportunity, Dark grabbed the back of the other's tunic and hauled him back before he could get to his sword. Dark pulled the warrior tightly to him, his chest against the other's back, his blade pressed to his throat. The warrior stilled.<br>~ "Give up?" Dark asked with mock sweetness.  
>~ "Not on your life," the other snarled and elbowed him hard in the solar plexus, then shifted his feet and swung his leg around Dark's, tripping him up. Dark gasped for air again, and his knees gave out from under him. He let go of the lilac warrior, who immediately dove for his blade, then spun around to face him again, sword gripped tightly in his hand.<br>~ "Impressive," he wheezed. The second hit was far worse than the first; he could feel the damage his ribs had taken from the warrior's blow. He was hoping they'd heal quickly; he was shocked to find himself _having fun,_ and he didn't want it to end.  
>~ The other viewed him with wary eyes as he finally stood up and gripped his sword. "Shall we?" he taunted. The warrior blurred into motion again and darted around behind him, but he spun around just in time to avoid the blow the warrior would have delivered to his unprotected back. Dark danced out of range, then stepped close again and swung high, drawing the warrior's shield upward, then kicked his leg out and swept the other's feet out from under him. The warrior scrambled to his feet, turned, and tackled him. Dark, not expecting such a reckless move, fell like a rag doll. His sword dropped from his hand and spun away from him. Before he could get to it, the warrior was on him. He was pinned to the ground by this thin little warrior, his sword pressed to Dark's neck.<p>

* * *

><p>~<br>~ Link awoke to the sound of footsteps pounding up the stairs. _Lach,_ he thought, and a moment later, his brother burst into the room.  
>~ "Lyric's gone," he said, seeing Link was already awake. "Her horse is still here, but she left her yellow tunic on her bed."<br>~ "_Shit!_" Link yelled, sitting up and throwing back the covers. The healers had done a fine job on him, and he moved without difficulty.  
>~ One glance around the room told him all he needed to know. "She stole my Iron Boots. <em>Damn<em> it. She's gone after him." Link shoved his brother out the door, and slammed it behind him. He stripped down and began yanking on his clothes. Pants, boots, under shirt, blue tunic. He strapped on his sword and shield with quick, practiced motions. He grabbed his pack and was out the door in two minutes.  
>"If that bastard kills her," he growled to Lach, who had been waiting for him just outside the door, "I am going to rip his guts out and <em>feed<em> them to him." With those words, he charged down the Laboratory steps and out the door.  
>~<p>

* * *

><p>~ Lyric stared down at Dark Link. Her blade at his throat, at long last!<br>~_ Do it now!,_ her mind commanded. _Before he has a chance to get away_.  
>~ She pressed the sharp edge of her blade harder against his exposed neck. A thin line of blood appeared there.<br>~ Dark Link swallowed involuntarily, and winced as the blade bit deeper into his skin. He cleared his throat once, twice. She didn't budge the blade an inch, but she did wait for him to speak. Last words, and all that.  
>~ "I'm sorry," he said finally. His voice was rough.<br>~ "What for?" She snapped. "Trying to kill my brother, or…?" she trailed off sarcastically. "You can't just say '_I'm sorry_' and get away with what you did to him."  
>~ His eyes closed. "It wasn't…exactly…me. But if this is my penance for taking his life, then so be it."<br>~ Lyric frowned. Was he feigning?  
>~ "Is this some kind of trick?" she asked, not moving the sword an inch.<br>~ He sighed. "No. No tricks."  
>~ She waited several moments, before groaning. "Dammit," she muttered, withdrawing her blade from his neck and stood, keeping the sword at the ready in case this was a trick.<br>~ He opened his eyes and looked up at her in question. She shrugged. "You piqued my interest. Explain what you mean, that it '_wasn't you._'"  
>~ "Mind if I get up?" he asked dryly, ironic because he was laying in about six inches of water.<br>~ "Fine."  
>~ He stood slowly. He must have understood that any sudden moves would have him skewered faster than he could blink.<br>~ "So," she said briskly, "explain. How was it not _exactly_ you, but still you?"  
>~ He hesitated for a long moment, until she frowned at him. "I wasn't born. I was made, <em>created,<em> by an evil man, and placed here to wait."  
>~ "Wait for <em>Link<em>. To stop him. To _kill_ him, so that Ganondorf would be free to take over all of Hyrule, and for _what?_" she snapped at him.  
>~ "I-I don't know. I'm sorry. You're right to want me dead."<br>~ "I know that. But it still doesn't explain what you just told me."  
>~ "I have waited in this room for seven years," Dark Link explained, "and have always been as lucid and ordinary as I am at this moment. When <em>Link<em>," he added, putting emphasis on the name he shared with her brother, "arrived, something changed. _I_ changed, and I have no idea how. I felt a terrible burning, this huge pain that swallowed me whole, until I couldn't even _think_." He stopped, clearly horrified at the mere memory. "When it finally released me… There was blood on my sword, and a man who looked like me lying at my feet. He wasn't dead, but I could tell it was a near thing.  
>~ "I dropped my sword before the burning could take me again."<br>~ Lyric was utterly shocked, completely taken aback, but she kept her face impassive. "Then?"  
>~ He nodded absently. "Then another man, dressed in blue and white and with his face covered," he nodded to Lyric, "appeared out of nowhere, lifted the dying man as easily as you lift your sword, and disappeared in a flash of light." He had been staring at the ground through his entire explanation, but now he raised his eyes to meet hers. "You should kill me now. There is something destructive within me, and I have no idea when it's going to come out again." And with those words, he sank to his knees and bowed his head.<br>~ Well, wasn't this something! She wanted a fight to prove her mettle, and a victory over the demon-creature, not an execution. There would be no honor in killing him this way.  
>~<em> He still should die,<em> she argued with herself, _for what he did to Link.  
><em>~_ But was it really even him?_ part of her mind reasoned. _If he is being controlled by Ganondorf, or some other foul thing we don't even know about yet…  
><em>~_ All the more reason to kill him! We can't have some psychotic **thing**__ running around with no self-control of any kind, ready to murder anyone that he reacts to.  
><em>~ And yet… And yet. He hadn't killed Link. What he _had_ done was bad enough, but whatever had _possessed_ him when Link had arrived didn't make Dark Link kill him. _Didn't? Or couldn't?_ she wondered.  
>~ She made an irritated noise. She didn't want to be thinking about this! She wanted clean and simple revenge, not some entangled moral dilemma. She stomped over to Dark Link and raised her sword. He didn't so much as flinch.<br>~ And yet…she hesitated.  
>~ Slowly, much too gently to be a killing blow, she lowered her blade until the broad, flat side of it rested against the back of his neck. He shivered at the cold touch of steel. "Give me one good reason I shouldn't kill you <em>right<em> _now_," she growled.  
>~ He twitched, but made no move to get up or defend himself. His sword was far out of reach. "I don't have one," he said quietly.<br>~ "Why not?" she demanded. "What did you fight me for just now if you have no will to live?"  
>~ "I didn't say that," he told her in the same soft voice. "I said I don't have a good reason for you not to kill me. You have every reason to kill me. I murdered your <em>brother<em>. Even alone as I am, I know what that means."  
>~ She blinked. Drew in a steadying breath. "Tell me…how you managed not to kill him," she said instead. "Why did the pain suddenly disappear?"<br>~ He was quiet for a long time. "I've been asking myself that since it happened. I wish I knew. I have a theory, but no more than that."  
>~ "Tell me this theory."<br>~ "The night I was…made, something strange happened." He paused for a moment, then added in an amused tone, "Even by my standards." Lyric smiled in spite of was expecting some kind of lie, which she would know as soon as she heard it. She was expecting him to tell her an untruth to save his own skin, and thereby justify her taking his life as blood payment for Link's suffering.  
>~ Instead, he told her a tale so incredible that it could only be true. He spoke of an evil man clad in night-black, whose evil was so great that it could be seen with naked eyes. He spoke of a large, tall woman with shocking pink hair who radiated goodness, and whose feet didn't seem to touch the ground.<br>~ Lyric knew that woman.  
>~ "She spoke to me, inside my head." Dark Link raised a hand and tapped his temple with a pale, slender finger. "She said '<em>It is not your destiny to be his plaything,<em>' or something like that. Then…she kissed me, and it felt like she breathed light into me. It hurt. I passed out. And...when I finally came to, I was here.  
>"I know that doesn't seem like much, but I <em>knew<em> the man was evil. I don't know how I knew, but I did. The woman… She was nothing like him."  
>~<em> Well that was unexpected<em>, Lyric thought. _The Great Fairy_.  
>~ Killing someone chosen by a Great Fairy could have dire consequences, no matter how much Lyric felt he deserved it. That was going to be one of the major points in her argument with her brother, when the time came. The Great Fairies were willing to let Lyric try her strength, and who was Link to say that he knew better than them?<br>~ Still.  
>~ "How do I know you're not <em>lying?<em>" she demanded.  
>~ "You don't. There's no way I can prove it to you. Though I would think," he added, raising his head slightly to look at her from the corner of his eye, "if you didn't believe me, that I would have been dead by now, rather than having this long conversation about ways and means."<br>~_ Damn._ He had her there. Logically, she shouldn't believe a word he said. But her instincts, which she had learned to listen to by now, were telling her that he wasn't lying. _How would he know what the Great Fairies looked like, for one?_ Like it or not, his story made sense.  
>~ Just as slowly as she had lowered it, she raised her blade from his neck and took a step back.<p>

* * *

><p>~<br>~ Link exploded through the surface of the water inside the submerged Temple and quickly climbed out. He took a running start and leapt across the water onto the landing on the other side, a feat he had never before accomplished. He didn't even stop to acknowledge it, just ran full-tilt across the ledge and jumped again, this time not quite making it. He dragged himself out of the water again, and immediately pulled his sword and shield. He sprinted the last few feet to the door and slammed his fist into the button to open it. The door made a strange sound, like metal on stone, then rose into the ceiling.  
>~ "<strong><em>LYRIC!<em>**" he roared.  
>~<p>

* * *

><p>~ "What are you doing?" Dark asked, lifting his head to glare at the lilac warrior. He had been expecting death, had been anticipating it, and now felt off-kilter, because events were not going the way he had expected.<br>~ "I can't kill you," the lilac warrior replied, his voice flat. "As much as I want to, I can't. You were chosen by the Great Fairy. I was as well, and I can't just disregard that."  
>~ Dark blinked uncomprehendingly. He opened his mouth to ask something, when he suddenly crippled over in agony. "Your brother…must be here," he gasped. "<strong><em>Run<em>_._**" He tried to fight it, but the dark fire swept over his mind, and he was gone.

* * *

><p>~ Lyric gaped at Dark as he screamed and dropped to his knees. He was immediately enveloped in a smoky black cloud, and she lost sight of him.<br>~ At that same moment, she heard the door grind open, and her brother's furious, fear-stained bellow, "**_LYRIC!_**"  
>~ "I'm here, Link!" she called, stepping out from behind the dead tree. Link looked utterly frantic, and as soon as he caught sight of her, he strode quickly across the room and grasped her shoulders hard, looking her over.<br>~ "You're not dead!" he exclaimed, sounding relieved. "I thought the worst." And he shocked her by pulling her into a crushing hug. She understood with sudden clarity, his feelings right now were the same ones she had every time he left to go fight another Temple. She knew that as much as her brother could be an arrogant turd, she would be utterly distraught if he one day he didn't come home.  
>~<em> He almost didn't this time<em>, Lyric thought, and squeezed him tighter before stepping back. "I'm alright," she told him.  
>~ "Don't worry," Link told her, seemingly deaf to her previous words. "I'm not going to let that monster kill you."<br>~ She sighed, rolling her eyes. "Well, it's not quite that simple," she hedged. "I fought him myself, you see."  
>~ Link scowled. "You can't have done. You don't have a scratch on you."<br>~ "Have you not been paying attention every time we've sparred?" she asked, forgetting for a moment where they were. "Did you not keep track of all the times I've handed you your ass? If you—"  
>~ A sinister, cruel laugh echoed from behind them. They both turned to look, and there stood Dark Link, sword at the ready, looking exactly as Link had described him back at the Laboratory when they'd brought him in half-dead.<br>~ Dark Link looked like night fallen, like a shadow made solid, like a nightmare, with glowing scarlet eyes. There was no face, only the eyes, yet the shadow figure spoke anyway.  
>~ "<em>Squabble amongst yourself, petty children,<em>" he hissed. "_Neither of you are a match for me._" He laughed that terrible laugh once again, and advanced on Link.  
>~ Lyric took a few slow steps back, deliberately fading into the background. Very quietly, she drew her sword and circled around behind Dark. Link never even noticed she was gone from his side. All his attention was on Dark, and vice versa. She slowly began creeping up on Dark, praying her brother's eyes wouldn't flick to her and give her away. Just as Dark was within slashing range of Link, she leapt at Dark, her sword aimed for his head.<br>~ It never connected.  
>~ With a resounding clang of metal against metal, she slammed into an invisible barrier and was flung back several feet, landing flat on her back in the shallow water.<br>~ "What the _freaking hell_ was _that_?" she muttered, furious. The sound of clashing swords rang in her ears; Link and Dark were fighting now. She struggled into a sitting position, and watched as Dark and Link battled. Neither one was landing a single blow. Every move Dark made, Link blocked, and every swing Link took, Dark was ready for. _We could be here all day,_ she thought.  
>~ Link suddenly backed up several paces, and reached into his pocket.<br>~ "_Din's Fire!_" he roared. Lyric held up her shield just in time, as the huge, fiery dome spread through the room, and dissipated.  
>~ She peeked over the top of her shield. Dark looked as though he had been scorched, though it was hard to tell through all the shadowy black. Thin tendrils of smoke rose from him, a telltale sign. Dark snarled at Link and lunged at him again, this time drawing a shallow wound across Link's sword arm. Link didn't even seem to notice. He and Dark circled each other, looking for an opening.<br>~ Lyric stood and sheathed her sword. _I'm not about to try _that_ again,_ she thought. _Evidently I can't interfere directly. I wonder if I can try it indirectly?_ She pulled out her bow and notched an arrow, circling the two. Her feet hit dry ground. The dead tree island.  
>~ She watched for a good shot at Dark, where she could shoot without running the risk of hitting her brother. <em>Wait for it. An opportunity will present itself, <em>her mentor had instructed long ago. _It always does._ So she waited, sighting along the arrow, watching as the two slammed swords again and again. Slowly they turned, until Dark's back was to her.  
>~<em> Now!<em> She shot. The arrow shattered several feet from him. "Dammit!" she hissed. _Link has to fight this battle himself. I'm not allowed to interfere.  
><em>~ Feeling grim, she put her bow away and settled in to watch the fight. Link lunged, slashing across and down. Dark didn't get his sword up in time, and Link sliced a huge gash right across Dark's chest. Dark roared and charged Link, slamming his shield into him, knocking him back. Link took the chance to cast Din's Fire again, and Lyric held up her shield to block it from hitting her. She could head Dark's scream of pain again, and the clash of swords.  
>~<em> There has to be some reason for all of this. Did the Great Fairy <strong>really<strong>__ choose Dark Link just so my brother could kill him?  
><em>~ Dark slammed his shield against Link's and forced it away, then punched Link hard in the face._ He stole my move!_ She thought, part amused and part frustrated. _Link would never take fighting tips from me, even if they were good ones._ Link backed up several paces, giving ground to the enemy, and wiped the blood out of his eyes.  
>~ Suddenly, he pulled out the Megaton Hammer he'd borrowed from the Gorons and attacked Dark with it. Dark started retreating, having no way to defend against such a weapon. Dark lunged again and again, only to have his sword knocked aside by the giant hammer.<br>~ Finally, Link knocked the black sword right out of Dark's hand, and dropped the hammer. Quick as lightning, he unsheathed his own sword and stabbed Dark in the heart.  
>~ Lyric sucked in a breath. <em>Guess the choice was never in my hands.<em> Dark Link was once more engulfed in swirling black clouds, but beams of brilliantly white light were shining through. Link gasped and released his sword, which fell into the shallow water. It must have burned him; Lyric could hear the hissing from her perch on the dead tree island.  
>~ The light emanating from the cloud seemed to get even brighter somehow; the clouds were dissolving into white light. Suddenly the light exploded all around them. Lyric and Link were both blasted back. Lyric hit her shoulder on the shrivelled tree, and she heard Link's muffled cry as he hit the ground as well. <em>I'm getting tired of this shit,<em> she thought. _The next one that blasts me back is getting stabbed._ The burst of light was blinding; she couldn't even open her eyes.  
>~ Suddenly as it had appeared, the light vanished, making the insides of her eyelids glow strangely.<br>~ "This…is _not_…my day," she groaned and sat up for a second time. Lyric looked around, but Dark was nowhere to be seen. She sighed, but hauled herself to her feet to go and help her brother.  
>~ Link was still lying on his back. At first she thought he was unconscious; then she saw him blink. She chuckled. "You look a bit dazed, there, little brother," she teased. "Here, I'll give you a hand up." She extended her hand to him, and for once, he took it. She hauled him to his feet, and they both looked around.<br>~ Nothing.  
>~ Link bent down and retrieved the Hammer from where he'd dropped it, and stowed it in his pack. Lyric reached into her own and fished out one of the pink bottled fairies, which Link accepted with a grateful look. She stepped away from him to let him heal, and looked around again, this time at the ground. She expected to see footprints, a scorch mark, <em>anything<em> to indicate the fierce battle that had just occurred. The room remained the same as it had always been...but the bars on the door were gone.  
>~ She reached into her bag again and pulled out a single arrow, then snapped it in half. "May you find peace, now," she said to the empty air.<br>~ She and Link walked to the door, passing the dead tree island. Lyric gently placed the broken arrow on the dry soil, then turned and followed her brother to the door.  
>~ "What's with you?" Link asked her. "You're not usually sentimental."<br>~ "I think Dark Link might have been a real person. I fought him, nearly killed him myself. And then I spoke to him. The '_creature_' you fought and the man I talked to were not the same. Ganondorf was controlling him, but he wasn't completely evil.  
>"Come on," she said finally. "Let's get out of here, or Sheik will have both our hides."<br>~ Link turned and hit the button to open the door.  
>~ "I think you're forgetting someone," a voice called from behind.<p> 


	3. Chapter 3

**The Legend of Lyric  
>Chapter 3<br>~From Death To Daring~  
><strong>

~ Dark felt as though every bone in his body had been cracked and bruised. His very skin felt irritated by his clothes, and it hurt just to _breathe_, but he was still alive, and that had to count for something.  
>~ He limped slowly toward the two warriors standing at the door, their swords drawn, wary looks on their faces. He stopped well out of range and held his hands up in a placatory manner.<br>~ This did nothing to reassure either one. "I killed you," the man in blue said slowly. _Link_.  
>~ "Don't worry, hero, you didn't fail at your job," Dark told him. He meant the words to be a sneer, but they just came out sounding tired.<br>~ "Then what happened?" Link demanded.  
>~ Dark paused. "I'm not too sure myself. But obviously, I'm different than I was…during the fight." He stopped and glanced at the lilac warrior, whose name he still did not know, though he still addressed Link. "I'm also different than I was during the fight with your brother," he finished a slight incline of his head.<br>~ "My brother?" Link asked, glancing at the lilac warrior, who raised both eyebrows but said nothing. Link suddenly fell back against the wall, laughing so hard he almost doubled over. "_That's_ how you got it to fight you? I've got to give you credit, Lyr. You just don't give up. Alright," he said with a final chuckle, straightening up. "Alright. Time for this little charade to come to an end."  
>~ The lilac warrior shrugged and reached up to unwind his face mask.<br>~ "Wha—" Dark broke off mid-word as the mask fell away, and the man in the lilac tunic was revealed to be...a woman.  
>~ "I'm Link's <em>sister,<em>" she told him, looking a little sheepish. "I dislike the deception, but knowing _some_ men," she continued, throwing a sharp look Link's way, "I wasn't sure if you would fight me as a woman."  
>~ Dark just stared at her. <em>This girl got through my defenses, pinned me, held a sword to my neck, and faster than her own brother could do it. Impressive. <em>While he had been distracted, the woman had turned to address her brother.  
>~ "The question is," she was saying, "what do we do now? The state of things has changed."<br>~ "The hell it has," Link snapped at his sister. "This _creature_ almost killed me, and you're defending it?"  
>~ "I'm not defending any<em>one<em>," the woman said with unruffled calm. "But you have to admit that this is a…unique situation we find ourselves in. We need more information before we make any…permanent decisions."  
>~<em> Is she talking about killing me?<em> Dark wondered in a daze. _Earlier, that prospect seemed inevitable, almost appealing, but now…_ Now, what? Things were different, just like the woman said. _He_ was different. Free, he hoped, of the taint of the evil man's influence.  
>~ "…by giving the benefit of the doubt to a <em>thing<em> that almost killed me!" Link was snarling at his sister, shaking Dark from his musings.  
>~ "I'm not trying to downplay what happened here," the woman replied, her tone hardening, "but if I am right, then this man is more important than either of us realise. If I'm wrong…" She trailed off for a moment, then shrugged. "I'll kill him myself. But we <em>need<em> to know the truth."  
>~ Link sighed, running a hand across his face. "Damn it, Lyric, you always have to do things the hard way. What did you intend to <em>do<em> with it while you're off on your fool's errand?"  
>~ "Him. And I haven't gotten that far," the woman, Lyric, admitted with a wry grin.<br>~ Dark frowned. They were talking about him like he wasn't there, and it was starting to grate on his nerves. He opened his mouth to say something, but Lyric finally addressed him directly. "I'll need your sworn word that you are not a threat to my brothers or anyone else on our side, before I can let you leave."  
>~ Before Dark could even formulate a reply, Link scoffed. "Lyric, <em>you<em> might hold yourself to such standards, but most _people_ aren't that honorable. You expect this _thing_ to keep it's word?"  
>~ She drew in a deep breath through her nose, a breath for calm, and exhaled it before answering. "If he doesn't," she said quietly, her eyes locked with Dark's, "I'll kill him."<br>~ No one said anything for a long moment. Dark finally cleared his throat and said, "I swear."  
>~ "Swear what? You have to say it," she insisted.<br>~ "I swear I'm not a…a threat." A wave of sudden inspiration struck him, and he unsheathed his sword. Before either could react or attack him, he sliced it across the palm of his hand, holding back a wince. He held out the bloodied hand and let a few drops of blood fall into the shallow water. "On my lifeblood, I will never harm you or yours. This I swear."  
>~ The room was suddenly filled with crackling energy. There was a flash, and the cut on his hand was gone, along with the strange power.<br>~ "So sworn," Lyric said softly.

* * *

><p>~ And the illusion on the room shattered.<br>~ Lyric, Link, and Dark Link all jumped as the room's illusion suddenly disappeared. The mists and seemingly endless wasteland were replaced with the same ocean-blue stone walls that the rest of the Water Temple was built from. Of the three, though, Dark Link's expression conveyed the most shock.  
>~ "It's gone," he murmured, clearly dumbfounded.<br>~ She watched as he took a tentative couple of steps into the room, and nothing happened. _Well, this room was all he knew_. She turned to her brother. "Are you coming back with us, or are you staying to finish the Temple?"  
>~ Link scowled at the '<em>us<em>,' but said nothing of it. "I'm staying."  
>~ Lyric nodded briskly. "Then you'll need these." She reached into her bag and pulled out his Iron Boots. Link took them from her with a wry smile.<br>~ "I wish you luck, for what it's worth," Dark said quietly. Link opened his mouth to say something, thought better of it, and closed it again.  
>~ "You'll be alright getting back?" Link asked his sister.<br>~ "You know me," she told him, grinning mischievously. "I'll find a way. Be safe," she added, grabbing him in a quick, tight hug. "You glory hog."  
>~ "Tag-along," he shot back with a grin. "You be safe, too."<br>~ She nodded, then turned to Dark Link. "Let's go." For a moment, she thought she saw him hesitate. But in the next instant, he strode confidently after her, shooting Link a superior smirk. She rolled her eyes at both of them. Dark paused again at the threshold, just barely, before he took a breath and stepped boldly through the open door.

* * *

><p>~ The stone door slid shut with a echoing sound of scraping stone.<br>~ "You know how to swim?" Lyric asked him.  
>~ He considered this for a moment. "Yes. Though…I don't know <em>how<em> I know it," he confessed.  
>~ She simply nodded and dove into the water surrounding the monolith at the center of the room. He had never seen any part of the Water Temple but the room he just left, and even that was now lost to him. He slid into the cool water after Lyric and followed quickly in her wake to the other side, where a large opening was cut into the rock. Lyric climbed out ahead of him, then turned to give him a hand.<br>~ Down a short hall, there was another pool of water, this one much more shallow. Dark shivered in the chill air. His clothes were soaked, and he was about to get more wet. Together, they splashed into the shallow pool. Dark could see an opening under the surface that lead to…what?  
>~ "Take a deep breath and hold it," Lyric told him, breaking him out of speculation, "we're going under."<br>~ He did as he was told and dove after her, kicking his feet hard to make it through the submerged doorway. He saw Lyric shoot for the surface and followed quickly. His lungs were burning. Finally, his head broke the surface and he gasped in air, treading water and gaping at their surroundings.  
>~ The sun was just beginning to set in the west, turning the sky gold and pink, and casting purple shadows everywhere. The water glinted gold and silver in the light, and seemed almost blinding. <em>The air smells different, too<em>, he thought as he breathed in huge lungfuls of it. The openness of it was staggering to him; the grand, infinite sky, the emerald of the trees and grass, the sounds of birds and breezes and all manner of things. Things he had never seen before, but somehow knew their names. A ring of trees surrounded the lake on all sides, and a strangely top-heavy-looking building sat right beside it, on a small outcropping.  
>~ Finally his gaze returned to Lyric. She motioned for him to swim for the shoreline and they struck out together; it wasn't long before they reached shallow water. By then, Dark was shivering again and could barely stand. Lyric, on the other hand, had not a drop of water on her, and he looked at her incomprehensibly.<br>~ "W-why a-are y-y-you dry?" he asked through chattering teeth.  
>~ "You'll be able to warm up soon, the Laboratory's right there," she pointed, hoisting him up by his elbow. His boots slipped in the slick mud and squelched noisily as they trudged up the marshy bank. "My tunic was a gift from the Great Fairies. It enables me to breathe underwater, like Link's blue tunic," she told him conversationally. Finally they reached the Laboratory. She pushed the door open and called out, "Lach! You in here?"<br>~ There was a scrape and a bang, followed by footsteps. A lad maybe a year or two younger than Lyric pushed open another door.  
>~ "<em>Lyric!<em>" the lad cried, sounding equal parts joyful and exasperated. "Where the _hell_ have you been? Who's this guy? Where's Link, have you seen him? He went tearing out of here into the Temple after you, thought you'd gone after the Dark Link creature." Dark held back a flinch. "Where'd you go? Your horse was still here, so you couldn't have been far. But you've been gone for over a day!"  
>~ The boy, with his bright blue eyes and brown hair that was lighter than Lyric's but darker than Link's, could only be her other brother. Lach seemed to have an endless amount of words.<br>~ "_Lach!_" Lyric said loudly, cutting him off. "Do you have a fire going in the kitchen?"  
>~ "Yeah, I stoked it up about half an hour ago, so it's plenty warm. I was about to ask…"<br>~ Lyric steered Dark in the direction of the door the boy had just come through, which evidently led to a small kitchen, where there was, indeed, a blazing fire in the hearth. Lyric grabbed a wooden chair and shoved it close to the fire and pushed him into it. The fire started to work its magic immediately, and he closed his eyes in relief. Behind them, Lach was still talking.  
>~ "Lyr, you still haven't answered my questions!—"<br>~ "Perhaps because I can't get a word in edgewise," she muttered under her breath. Dark smiled, trying not to laugh. Lyric straightened and turned to her brother. "_Lach,_" she said again, loudly. "I promise I will answer _all_ of your questions, and questions you do not even know to ask, yet. But only after I get him taken care of." She gestured to Dark. "Sitting in cold, wet clothes is never comfortable."  
>~ "Oh! You're right, Lyr. I'll grab some towels. He can wear one of Link's spare tunics, it'll probably fit him fine. They look about the same size." And with that, he turned and left.<br>~ Lyric grabbed another chair and threw herself into it with a groan. She rubbed a hand across her face. "I'd forgotten how much he likes to talk," she muttered, seemingly to herself.  
>~ After a short time, they heard footsteps on the stairs, announcing Lach's return. "Lyric, here's the towels, but shouldn't he get changed upstairs? We can give Mr-Laboratory-guy's assistant his clothes so she can wash 'em."<br>~ "Mr. Mizumi, Lach. And his assistant's name is Mary," Lyric said calmly. "C'mon. Take off your boots and leave them dry by the fire. They'll be fine by tomorrow. The rest should be dry by then as well." He did as he was told and followed them out into the main room and up a narrow flight of stairs.  
>~ The door of the first room they passed was ajar, and Dark glanced inside. It was a mess, with all kinds of items everywhere, and a yellow tunic tossed carelessly across the bed. They continued down the hall until they came to another open door. There was a basic bed, a desk, and a window looking right out over the half-empty lake. A green tunic and khaki pants were sitting folded on the bed.<br>~ "Dry off and get changed," Lyric told him, gently pushing him into the room. "Come back down when you're done. I'll see if I can get some food together for us." He nodded once and she shut the door with a snap.

* * *

><p>~ An hour later, after they had gotten some hot food in them (courtesy of Mr. Mizumi's assistant, Mary, who acted more like a Mother Hen), Lach turned on Lyric and said, "So, spill."<em><br>~ That is probably the shortest sentence he has ever uttered,_ she thought with a small smile. "Well, just promise to hear me out before freaking out, okay?"  
>~ Lyric waited until he nodded his agreement before briefly outlining her trip into the lake via Link's stolen Iron Boots, the fight, the explanation, Link's abrupt arrival; the second, real fight and its result, and finally, the trip back out of the Water Temple.<br>~ "…And that's where he is now, though, knowing him, he might be on his way back already," she finished. For the first time since she started the long explanation, she met her brother's eyes.  
>~ They had no judgement in them, no condemnation, though his expression was pensive. "Interesting how stabbing Dark Link here changed him," he mused. "Though we can't keep calling you <em>Dark Link<em> forever, can we? It'll get a bit confusing."  
>~ "Just Dark is fine," he said nervously.<br>~ Lyric snorted. "Okay then, _Just Dark_," she teased, then sobered. "I don't know for sure, though, if he really _is_ okay. You didn't see him back there, Lach. He looked like…like a shadow made solid. Just like Link described."  
>~ Lach made a noise of irritation. "Lyric, you know better than anyone about gifts from the Great Fairies. Obviously they're willing to let <em>you<em> try your strength. I think they're willing to let Dark make his choice."  
>~<em> As long as that choice is for good, I have no problem with that<em>. "Still, I'd rather be sure. Which is why I was hoping," she continued, looking at her brother squarely, "that you would stay here with him tonight while I make a run across Hyrule. If I push hard I should be able to make it back by the day after tomorrow."  
>~ "Lyric, you can't go running off clear across Hyrule just to ask the Great Fairy a question!" Lach cried, sounding exasperated. "Besides, you'll kill your horse, or your<em>self<em> in the process."  
>~ "What would you have me do?" Lyric demanded. "I can't warp across Hyrule with a freaking magical ocarina, unlike <em>some<em> people. I can't leave him here by himself…"  
>~ "Take him with you," Lach interrupted.<br>~ "Impossible. I'd never be able to sneak _both_ of us past the Re-deads. If I go alone, I have a greater chance of getting in and out unseen."  
>~ Lach stared at her. "You were going to go waltzing into <em>Ganondorf's<em> territory? Are you _insane?_ Lyric, forget being unseen, you'd be killed! Or worse, captured, and Link would have to come and pull you out.  
>~ "Did you <em>not<em> think of visiting the source at the top of Death Mountain?" he continued, cutting her off.  
>~ "That one is even farther than the one by the Castle. Besides if you want me to take him with me, how am I supposed to get him <em>up<em> the mountain?"  
>~ "I'm right here," Dark said quietly beside her. She jumped guiltily; they <em>had <em>been talking about him like he wasn't there.  
>~ "Sorry," she said sheepishly.<br>~ "If you need me to climb the mountain with you so you can be…certain of me, I'll find a way to do it," he said in the same voice, quiet but intense. "Though I would have thought that a blood-sworn oath would be enough."  
>~ Lyric frowned. "This is a matter of magic," she told him. "The blood oath is fine if we're dealing with only <em>you<em>," she waved a hand at him. "But not too long ago, you were possessed and trying to kill Link. I want to be _sure_ that the taint is gone for good."  
>~<em> We're talking ourselves in circles, here<em>, Lyric thought. _I should have just **told**__ Lach that he'd be staying with Dark while I made the run across Hyrule.  
><em>~ "It is," Dark told her, still in that same tone. "I can feel it. But I don't expect you to take that for granted."  
>~ "You're right, I don't."<br>~ "Then take me with you up the mountain and we'll find out one way or another."

* * *

><p>~ Dark had known, somewhere inside him, that this was important. He <em>needed<em> to be there when Lyric visited the Great Fairy. _Partly to see if she really was the one I saw that night_. And for this, he had faced off against Lyric in a quiet battle of wills, until finally she conceded.  
>~ "Fine," she'd said, slapping her hand down on the table. "Fine. I'm not one to stand in another's way and tell them they can't do something." She had scowled at him, but he wasn't sure he believed her irritation. "If you fall all the way down the mountain and break your fool neck, well…"<br>~ But he had won. He was going with her, going to visit the Great Fairy in person, and put to rest once and for all any doubts about his trustworthiness. They had made their plans from there. They were going to leave first thing in the morning, after a good night's rest.  
>~<em> If I could <strong>get<strong>__ a good night's rest,_ Dark thought sourly. He had been ordered to bathe before bed, and his skin was raw from scrubbing. Add to that all of the strange noises he was unused to hearing, like wind, the creak of floorboards as they contracted in the chill evening air, and the gentle lapping of the weary lake, and he found himself lying awake in bed, staring at the ceiling.  
>~ That was another thing, the bed. <em>While I can understand how much someone would enjoy this,<em> he thought, _I'm used to sleeping on the ground.  
><em>~ He rolled over, onto his side. Nope. He rolled onto his other side. No way. He rolled onto his stomach, and that was when he gave up. With a sigh, he got out of the warm, soft bed and lay down on the wooden floor, shield under his head, sword at his side.  
>~ Yes.<br>~ After the Great Fairy cleared him… **_If_**_ she clears me,_ his mind whispered traitorously, _If_. If she cleared him, he'd be a free man.  
>~ If Lyric wouldn't accept him, even with the Great Fairy's approval, he would have to find somewhere else to go. Thoughts of freedom appealed. Thoughts of walking away from the first person he'd ever met (despite the unusual circumstances) did <em>not<em>.  
>~<em> I'll just have to try and convince her to let me stay with her.<em> He sighed, shifted into a more comfortable position, and closed his eyes. He did not open them again until morning.

* * *

><p>~ Lyric couldn't sleep.<br>~ She sat up by the window, tracking the moon across the inky sky, occasionally glancing down at the lake water. She wondered how Link was doing, and whether he would return before she left for Death Mountain.  
>~ After what felt like a long while, her mind wandered back to planning their route to visit the Great Fairy. Head out at first light, ride hard, stay off the roads, make it to Kakariko Village by sunset. They'd camp at the base of the mountain trail and continue on in the morning. She stretched, already anticipating the long hours on horseback at top speed, and the cold, hard ground they'd be sleeping on by tomorrow night, and that was only if everything went well.<br>~ _Knowing my luck, something's bound to go wrong,_ she thought sourly, finally abandoning the window seat for the bed. She climbed in, pulled up the covers, and snuggled down into the comfort and warmth, soaking it up while she could. She sighed once, and drifted into slumber.

~ Morning came all too soon. Accustomed to rising early, Lyric was the first out of bed. First stop, the washroom. Once finished with her morning ablutions, she returned to her quarters and dressed for travel in her customary sun-yellow tunic and hat, tan pants, and dark brown boots. Mary, the assistant of the old man who lived at the Laboratory, had laundered her clothes the night before, and Lyric packed away the clean garments with a smile of gratitude. She would find a way to repay their kindness one day soon. She straightened the bedclothes, strapped on her sword and shield, and gave the room one final, sweeping look before departing it for the last time.  
>~ Downstairs in the kitchen, she found a sleepy Lach seated at the table beside Dark, both of whom had mugs of hot kavà before them. Dark did a small double-take, probably at the brightness of her tunic, when she entered. She raised one eyebrow but said nothing, and he looked away. She nodded to her brother before turning to pack provisions for the road ahead.<br>~ "Have a cuppa before you go, Lyr. It's chilly this morning," Lach told her, his voice still froggy from sleep. He was _not_ used to being woken so early. He was usually up late tending the forge.  
>~ "Alright," she agreed. He got up and poured her a cup as she finished packing what they would need. She took the mug from him with a grateful murmur, and dumped several spoonfuls of sugar into it before taking a sip.<br>~ "All that sugar is bad for you," Lach said, frowning.  
>~ She smiled. Her brain was waking up now. "So it's my one vice. It's not going to kill me," she replied with a grin. "I'm going to check on Sabine, I'll be back in a minute."<br>~ She stepped out into the pre-dawn morning. Mist rolled off the water, and her breath fogged the air. Lach was right, there was a definite chill in the air. She clutched the kavà mug with both hands, warming her fingers, and hurried to the stable behind the Laboratory. Stepping through the door out of the chill, she took a deep breath that was scented with hay and horses, and felt herself come fully awake. She passed Epona, Link's horse, and Cloud Dancer, who belonged to Lach, until she came to the last stall at the far right end.  
>~ "Hello Sabine," she said softly.<p>

* * *

><p>~ Dark finished his drink at about the same time Lach did.<br>~ "You should probably head out and meet Lyric, if you don't have anything else you're taking with you," her brother told him. It was a joke; Dark had come down to breakfast fully dressed, with his sword and shield strapped to his back. "_'Checking on Sabine'_ is usually a euphemism for _'You have five minutes and then I'm leaving you behind.'_"  
>~ Dark chuckled. "Well, it seem that for now, I travel light." He pushed back his chair and stood, and Lach did the same. "Thank you for everything."<br>~ Lach held out his right hand, and Dark extended his. Lach gripped his forearm, not aggressively, just below the elbow, and Dark copied him immediately. Lach nodded once and released him. "For future reference, should you need it," he told Dark. "That is a respectful kind of greeting, or farewell, particularly among men. Although I've seen Lyric do it as well." He shook his head, but he was smiling. "Get you going, then. I hope to see you again someday! Safe journey." Dark nodded once, not knowing what else to say. He turned away and headed out of the kitchen, through the front room, and out into the early morning mists.  
>~ He had to stop for a moment, the great openness of the outdoors overwhelming him again. He leaned against the outside wall of the laboratory, closing his eyes. He became aware of the fresh air washing against his skin, and breathed in a thousand different scents, unfamiliar yet somehow known. He could hear the water of the lake moving in gentle tides against the shore. There was the sound of running water somewhere behind him, like a small waterfall. He heard birds and insects and…the gentle nicker of a horse.<br>~ His eyes shot open and he looked around. There was no barn that he could see, so he pushed himself away from the wall and wandered around the corner. At the very back of the building, there was a wooden structure, with a roof to keep the sun and the rain off the horses that must have been stabled there. He pushed open the wooden door and looked around. The stable wasn't very large, and he spotted Lyric immediately.  
>~ In the stall at the very end of the row, Lyric was grooming a golden brown horse with white patches on it, a line of white encircling its right eye. She was crooning softly to it, almost singing, and brushing out its long mane. The wooden door swung shut behind him, and Lyric spun around. "Oh, hello Dark," she said. The horse shifted uneasily beside her, startled by her sudden movement. "Come meet Sabine." She turned back to the horse, motioning with one hand for him to join her. He approached the horse slowly, cautiously.<br>~ "I've never been near a horse before," he said softly to Lyric when he reached her. She glanced sideways at him, and he realised that he sounded almost nervous, utterly lacking the arrogance he usually carried.  
>~ "Nothing to it," she told him. "Here." She took his hand and placed it gently on the horse's neck. The fur was bristly and warm against his skin. Slowly, he stroked the horse's scruff. "Sabine is a Gypsy mare." Sabine closed it's…<em>her<em> eyes and snorted, ruffling Dark's silvery hair with her breath. He chuckled. "See," Lyric said. "Easy."  
>~ "You were right." He ran his fingers through the mare's mane, the strands soft as silk.<br>~ "Are you ready to ride?" she asked him after a few minutes of peaceful silence.  
>~ He looked quickly at her. "Ride?" he asked hesitantly, and she frowned. "It's just…this is the first time I've ever even <em>seen<em> a horse, let alone _ride_ one."  
>~ "Well… You know how to speak without ever being taught. Hopefully the same will hold true of horses. I don't have the time to teach you." She turned away as she was speaking and unlatched the stall to let Sabine out. Dark backed up several paces. The horse suddenly seemed <em>much<em> bigger now that she wasn't confined. And _taller_. How he supposed to get all the way up there?  
>~ Lyric glanced over at him and her frown deepened. "I'm not spending <em>days<em> walking across Hyrule, Dark. No way. Come on, it's not that difficult." She led Sabine past him and out of the barn. He followed, groaning internally. Outside, Lyric was checking her horse over, probably for the third time. Seeming satisfied, she grabbed the reigns, stuck her heel into one of the looped straps hanging down from the seat on it's back, and swung herself up effortlessly, settling into the seat with grace. Twisting in the seat, she turned to look at him. "Come on, I haven't got all day. We have to get moving if we're to have any hope of reaching Kakariko before nightfall."  
>~ He forced himself to approach the horse, but he had no idea how to join Lyric astride it. She looked down at him and smiled slightly.<br>~ "Right heel," she said, indicating his foot, "in the stirrup. Left hand, here. Push off with your left leg, pulling yourself up at the same time. Swing your other leg over her rear. Simple enough."  
>~ He placed the back of his foot where she had indicated, took a deep breath, and pushed off from the ground while pulling himself up, exactly as Lyric had told him. To his immense surprise, he settled on the horse's back just as easily as she had done it.<br>~ "Good. Now hold on to my waist."  
>~ Dark jerked back and almost fell off the horse. "What?"<br>~ He never even saw her move. Quick as lightning, she reached back and grabbed his wrists, jerking his arms forward and wrapping them solidly around her middle. "Don't let go," she ordered, before flipping the reigns in a clear command for her horse to proceed.

* * *

><p>~<em> You have to be patient<em>, she told herself even as she snatched at Dark's arms, yanking him closer to her so he wouldn't fall off and break is fool neck. _He's new at everything, you have to be patient with him_.  
>~<em> I don't have time to be patient!<em> She argued with herself. _I want this errand over and done with, already_. She flicked the reigns and Sabine started off at a steady trot, up the long, winding path away from the lake. For several minutes they passed nothing but trees, and Dark got himself situated on Sabine's back. Finally, they rounded a bend and a pair of gates came into view. The gates kept unwanted visitors away from Lake Hylia, keeping the land and waters pristine.  
>~ "Hold on tight," she said to Dark as they drew steadily closer to the gates. "We have to jump the gates." She felt his arms tighten around her. Finally, she gave the command, and Sabine broke into a gallop. Dark let out a whoop behind her, and she smiled in spite of herself. They ate the remaining distance, and as they closed on the gates, Lyric took a deep breath.<br>~ Sabine, as always, handled the jump flawlessly, landing with only a mild jolt on the other side, bounding forward, and clearing the outer gates with equal ease.  
>~ She could tell, by the way Dark started to relax, that he thought they were going to slow down, but Lyric just nudged Sabine faster. As soon as they approached the narrow dirt road that wound it's way past Kokiri forest before veering east toward Kakariko, she diverted them through a small stand of trees.<br>~_ Keep off the roads,_ Lach's advice had been last night, while Dark was washing up. _Ganondorf **knows**__ who Link is. I'm sure he knows about you by now_. She hadn't needed him to continue the thought, but he did it anyway. _He'll have scouts looking for you. Link doesn't need any distractions, like having to go rescue his sister from danger_.  
>~ She had scoffed, but only because she knew she could get herself out of trouble as fast as she could get into it. But the warning did not fall on deaf ears. Besides, she had other things to worry about, like the person sitting behind her.<br>~ Dark was holding onto her for dear life, and she half wished she could slow things down and let him take his time getting accustomed to everything, but they just didn't have the time. He could end up being a powerful ally to them in this fight, or he could be a danger in need of eliminating, but the only way to know for sure was to ask someone who knew more than they did. Time was of the essence, especially if things trended toward the latter option.  
>~ Usually, a ride to Kakariko from Lake Hylia would take a person about two days on horseback at a steady trot. Most people tended to overnight at Lon-Lon Ranch, but she had no desire to deal with the current owner's lecherous gaze or his perpetually hungry purse. Sabine was a special kind of horse, bred for speed, which cut the time. <em>And making the journey at a full gallop cuts it even more.<em>

~ After many hours, Lyric finally slowed them to a trot, but they still didn't stop.  
>~ She reached into her infinity bag, pulled out a few pieces of hard bread with raisins baked into it and handed some back to Dark. They ate in silence, and as soon as they were finished, she urged Sabine back into a gallop, flying across the open fields, past patchy copses of trees that hid from their eyes any view of the road, and so in turn hid them from unfriendly eyes that might be watching.<p>

~ Dark's rear was killing him.  
>~ Not literally, but it seemed a near thing. He had never realised how long a single day could be until he spent it on horseback, had never known how large the world was until he tried to cross it seated on the back of a huge, four-legged beast.<br>~ They stopped only once all day, and that was to give the _horse_ a rest. They were in another grove of trees, these with long, drooping branches that brushed the grassy earth. A small stream wove it's way through the wood, and this, according to Lyric, was why they had stopped.  
>~ After so many hours sitting astride a horse, he preferred to stand for these few minutes of respite. Lyric was lying back in the shade of a particularly large tree, eyes closed peacefully. He gazed at her for a long moment before turning away to wander through the trees. His feet made no sound as he walked through the grove, and eventually he lost the frantic feeling he associated with riding. His heartbeat calmed, and his knees steadied beneath him. The place filled him with a unexpected sense of peace and well-being.<br>~ Eventually, he followed the sound of running water back to it's source, knowing he could follow it back to Lyric when the time came. Across the narrow stream, he could see a small clearing just through the closest trees, and something within him said he should go and investigate. He took a running leap over the water, landing cat-like on the opposite shore. Now, faintly, he could hear music, like someone humming to themselves. A woman, he was almost certain. He straightened and moved forward as if compelled, yet still utterly at peace. Past tall, thin trees with narrow, drooping branches, past rocks covered in springy green moss, past puddles of water from the last rainfall. He stepped out from under the cool canopy of trees into a patch of sunlight as yellow as Lyric's tunic. He covered his eyes, momentarily blinded.  
>~ The singing sound was clearer now, and he felt utterly calm and serene, something he had never before experienced. When was finally able to open his eyes, he looked around.<br>~ The clearing was almost perfectly circular, and long yellow-green grasses came nearly to his waist. There was a tall standing stone in the very center of the glen, carved with some kind of symbols. He had no idea what they meant, but headed for the monolith to get a better look. As he approached it, he realised the stone was not perfectly round, but carved flat on the side that faced away from him, and he circled around to see what was on it's surface.  
>~ A woman's figure was carved into the stone. Whoever had carved this had somehow dressed her all in black, from her long, flowing hair to the hem of her dress. Her face was lifted slightly, as if she were looking at something over his head, beyond the treetops. Her hands were cupped before her as if she were holding or offering some precious object. He leaned forward to take a better look.<br>~ "Dark!" Lyric's voice surprised him, making him jump. She was standing at the edge of the clearing, just under the trees at the northeastern edge of the circle.  
>~ "Hi," he said inadequately. "I'm sorry I wandered off. I just needed to stretch my legs, and…" he trailed off, but she didn't look angry.<br>~ "What have you found?" she asked, coming toward him. "I didn't know this place existed, though I've camped in these woods before." She circled around to stand beside him and looked up at the effigy on the stone. A look of surprise passed over her face. "This is…sacred. This is an ancient place, here since before the fall of the Four Kingdoms." She bowed her head in reverence. Dark looked at the effigy again, and once more, his eyes were drawn to her proffered hands. Glancing over at Lyric, he leaned forward to see what was on the woman's palm.  
>~ An upside-down triangle made of some strange black stone rested in the stone hands. It was not artificially blackened, like the effigy herself, but a true black, and seemed to draw in the light and absorb it. A sudden urge to touch it came over him, but he resisted. Even he, new to the world as he was, knew better than that.<br>~ Beside him, Lyric knelt and drew a wicked-looking silver dagger from a sheath in her boot. She nicked the index finger of her left hand, drawing a bead of blood, and pressed it to the base of the stone statue, near the woman's feet. As she did this, he noticed that the stone woman appeared to have what looked like a sword strapped to her waist, over her flowing dress, and a circular shield behind her.  
>~ Lyric offered him the dagger, and he copied her actions. She sheathed the dagger when he was finished, and led the way out of the clearing, away from the effigy.<p>

~ "Lyric," he said hesitantly, when they returned to their rest stop, where Sabine was grazing amiably on the fresh grass. She glanced at him questioningly. "The woman...on the monolith...was holding a triangle, but it was upside down," he explained haltingly. "I've seen your shield, and I know that the triangles hold some kind of significance for Hylians, but what about an inverse one? What does that mean?"  
>~ She seemed confused by his question. "An inverse one? There's no such thing. It's always three triangles together, point-up. You must not have seen it properly."<br>~ "I did," he insisted. The feeling of peace was still with him, and with it came a sense of absolute assuredness that he had never known.  
>~ "Then maybe it broke; the statue <em>is<em> old," she reminded him. "It's been out in the elements for who knows how many thousands of years, there's a good chance that the weather just…eroded it to the point of breaking." He nodded, but not like he agreed with her. There was something about it…  
>~ "Ready to go?" she asked at last.<br>~ "Yes."  
>~ They mounted Sabine once more and continued on their pathless road east; and although he said no more about it, and didn't look back, although he left the feeling of serenity behind in the grove as they rode away, he couldn't leave behind thoughts of that little black triangle. It was as if he really had picked it up, and was carrying it with him, now…<p>

* * *

><p>~ They arrived at Kakariko at dusk. Sabine carried them through the main archway, long devoid of a sentry, and made for the stable directly on their right.<br>~ As soon as they had come to a full stop, Dark slid off the horse with a groan. Lyric dismounted more gracefully, but the long, hard trek clear across Hyrule had tired her as well. She paid the stable master for a few nights' worth of care, took what little she needed from Sabine's saddlebags, and left, Dark trailing behind her.  
>~ The people who lived in the shadow of the mountain had a kind of toughness about them, as if they were built from stronger stuff than everyone else, yet they were always open with their hearts and their hearths. She smiled at the ones she knew, nodded at those she didn't, but didn't slow her pace or stop to talk until they reached the gate at the base of the mountain trail.<br>~ "Are we going up tonight?" Dark asked.  
>~ "Not unless we want to die," she replied. "No, we'll find a safe place to camp somewhere nearby and head out at first light."<br>~ Up the wide, open path they went, as hills of soil and stone rose on either side of them until the path became cavern-like, and still, it wound it's way upward, heading for the mountain's peak. Lyric kept her eyes open and her wits sharp. Night was falling fast now, but she knew a safe hole was around here somewhere…  
>~<em> There!<em> She smiled as she spotted it, seeming to be just another part of the walls hemming in the mountain path. She hurried forward and pushed the curtain aside; only those who knew where it was could find it.  
>~ "Impressive!" Dark said quietly as he stepped in behind her.<br>~ "It's not much," she replied with a shrug, "but it's safe."  
>~ "It" was, in fact, a hole cut into the side of the mountain. It had probably once been used for storage or skulking; now it was where they would bed down for the night. With the curtain across the entrance, the hole was as black as a moonless night, but they didn't dare light candles in case the light drew unwanted attention. Their eyes grew accustomed to the lack of illumination, though; they could discern vague shapes in the gloom.<br>~ They ate; more of the same bread, this time with cheese, dried meat, and fresh water from a flask. Finally, Lyric pulled out a large, threadbare blanket and spread it across the chilly floor. With her shield behind her head as a pillow and her sword at her side, she lay down to rest; she could hear Dark doing the same. Lyric was so weary from the strenuous ride across Hyrule that she fell asleep almost immediately, despite the lack of homey comforts.  
>~ If she dreamed, she didn't remember it at all.<p>

* * *

><p>~ "You can climb, right?" Lyric was asking him.<br>~ Dark looked up at the craggy rock surface of the mountainside. "I sincerely hope so." She made a noise of irritation that made him glance at her. She was scowling. "Look at it this way: if I fall, you won't have to worry about asking the Great Fairy about me. All your problems will be solved." Worry put an edge in his voice, and it came out more sharply than he'd meant it.  
>~ To his surprise, instead of being offended, Lyric grinned. "Well, just try not to fall and break your fool neck. If you can ride a horse for the first time and not fall off, I think you can do this."<br>~ He had nothing to say to that; she had already turned away to rummage through her seemingly bottomless bag. She pulled out a metal hook with four sharp-looking prongs attached to a length of rope. She signalled Dark to stand back and began swinging it in a circle, steadily increasing the speed until finally, she let it go at the peak of the circle. The metal hook flew straight up and, with a resounding clang, caught the sheer side of the mountain. Lyric tugged on the rope twice, hard; evidently the spikes had dug deep, because it did not budge. She tied a length of the remaining length of rope around her waist before waving Dark over, where she tied the last of it around his own, with a fair amount of slack between them.  
>~ "Watch me first, then you can start up behind me," she ordered. Turning back to the seemingly sheer cliff face, she dug her hands into the rock high above her head and pulled herself up; her feet somehow found holds as well, and now she was climbing steadily. When she was a fair distance from him and the slack was running out, she stopped and looked down at him.<br>~ "There are handholds in the wall, you just have to find them," she called down.  
>~ With some trepidation, he approached the cliff and placed his hands upon it, high above his head. To his amazement, he found small ledges and grooves that seemed the perfect size for his hands to grasp. With a grunt of effort, he pulled himself up, scraping his boots against the wall until they found purchase as well. Hand over hand, foot over foot, he worked his way up, tracing Lyric's path behind her.<br>~ Despite being soaked with sweat from the exertion, he was grinning to himself. If someone had told him that after waiting seven years in solitude, that his bare existence would be drastically altered by a pair of siblings after almost killing one, and that he would find himself _scaling a mountain_ almost immediately after that, he would have never believed it.  
>~ There was a tug on the line. "Come on, Dark! What are you waiting for?" Lyric called from above him.<br>~ He grinned widened, and reached for another handhold.

* * *

><p>~ Lyric had always loved this view.<br>~ Despite the amount of effort that had to be put forth to get here, she had fallen in love with the way the earth seemed laid out at her feet, and the way she could see for miles in all directions. Faintly to the south, she could see the tops of the trees of Kokiri Forest, where Link had grown up until he was ten and she thirteen. Nibask, the town _she_ had grown up in, was too far to the west for her to be seen.  
>~ A grunt from below shook her out of her reverie; Dark had finally reached the ledge, and she bent down to give him a hand up. He dusted off his clothes and eventually looked around. His eyes went wide at the sight.<br>~ "Wow," he said softly.  
>~ Lyric nodded. "That's how I feel every time I come up here."<br>~ "_'Every time?'_" he asked.  
>~ She hesitated, uncertain of how much to tell him, how far to trust him. "I came up here a lot after Link disappeared. I was fifteen, and he was almost twelve, and I was helping him…one day he went to the Castle Market and just <em>vanished<em>…for seven years." She fell silent. Dark didn't say anything, just waited for her to continue, but she shook her head. "Come on. We're almost there. If everything goes well for you, there will be plenty of time to talk later."  
>~ She turned away from Dark's questioning gaze and the spectacular view, and made for the large stone door at the top of a gentle slope. Here, the mountain rose again, even higher into the air, but there was no way she knew to climb past this point. There was also a crude archway cut into the mountainside here, beside the stone door, which led to the mountain crater, where the heat was so intense it could kill you if you didn't have some magical way of resisting it.<br>~ Heat wafted out of this archway in humid breaths, but she wasn't interested in fire today. The stone door, with it's intricately carved stars and spirals, opened at her touch. A long, dark hallway stretched before them.  
>~ "Are you sure this is it?" Dark asked behind her, his tone finally betraying a hint of nerves.<br>~ Lyric rolled her eyes, but only said, "Let's go."  
>~ Dark took a deep breath and stepped into the corridor.<p> 


	4. Chapter 4

**The Legend of Lyric**  
><strong>Chapter 4<br>~Fairies and Fortunes~  
><strong>

~ In the passage to the Fountain of the Great Fairy of Magic, it was nearly pitch black as Lyric and Dark walked together, his shoulder almost brushing hers. They turned a sudden bend and came into a large, beautiful square room. The walls on all four sides shimmered faintly with every colour of the rainbow, and small white stones were set into the floor, creating a path to the shallow, pure-water fountain directly ahead of them, raised on a low dais. In the floor at the base of the fountain, a golden Triforce gleamed in the light that seemed to come from the very air itself. Faintly, as if played very softly, a harp's strings could be heard playing a sweet melody. Dark looked more intimidated by this place than anything else so far.  
>~ They approached the fountain. The Triforce symbol shone brighter still when they stepped onto the dais. Lyric sang three notes, twice in a row. The song of the Royal Family, Zelda's Lullaby.<br>~ A shriek of joyous laughter echoed around them, and a large, beautiful woman exploded from the shallow fountain, though no water touched them. Her hair was violently pink, her eyes seemed almost too big for her face, and her nose was long and somewhat pointed. Rather than fabric or cloth traditionally worn by Hylians, nature adorned her body: vines and leaves, flowers and furs covered her voluptuous form.  
>~ "Welcome back, <em>Dearcadh!<em>" the Great Fairy crowed. All of the fairies called her that every time she encountered them. "Merry meet!"  
>~ "Merry meet, Great Fairy," Lyric replied, bowing at the waist. "I have come seeking your council with an uncertainty I cannot settle alone, and also some<em>one<em> I think you might know." She gestured to Dark, who was standing very still, staring up at the Great Fairy.  
>~ The fairy's eyes lit up. "Ah, I wondered when I would be seeing you again, <em>Féin-Gach.<em> Merry meet, Dark."  
>~ "Merry meet," he replied, his voice soft and full of awe. The fairy bestowed a smile on him and returned her attention to Lyric, who waited for her nod before speaking.<br>~ Briefly, but as respectfully as possible, she recounted Link's venture in the Water Temple and the important points of everything that had happened afterward. She had thought long and hard, on the ride across Hyrule, how exactly to hit all of the significant points while still being concise. So told the Great Fairy of all she knew, with the exclusion of only a few details.  
>~ "Great Fairy, I think it would be better if Dark took up the narrative now, because the rest of the story belongs to him," she finished, glancing Dark's way. He shot her an apprehensive look, which she studiously ignored.<br>~ The fairy must have noticed this, because she smiled and said in a gentle tone, "There is no need for distress, _Féin-Gach._ Although I already know much of it, tell me your part of this tale, so that I may illuminate that which is shadowed and unknown."  
>~ Something taut in him seemed to loosen; he took a steady breath and began his side of the story, beginning, as one would expect, with his own beginnings, and brought them up to the battle between himself and Link. Of this, even Lyric did not know, and she listened curiously, watching him from the corner of her eye. He described the dark, burning fire to the Great Fairy much more explicitly than he had in the Room of Illusions. When he recounted being stabbed with the Master Sword, Lyric winced. She'd been in her share of fights, and gotten her share of stab wounds when someone made it past her guard, but this was something else.<br>~ "The cold fire disappeared instantly," he explained. Though his face was turned to the Great Fairy, his gaze was far away. "It was as if I had stepped from darkness into pure light. Every part of me still burned, but I was no longer cold." He stopped for a long moment, but the fairy simply waited for him to continue. "I could feel the blade in my chest," he said softly, his hand rising, as if of it's own accord, to touch the place where the sword had pierced him. "Light was filling me, and it drove out the burning cold." He sighed, and his gaze snapped back to the present. "I must have fallen unconscious, because the next thing I knew, I was waking up on the small island in the center of the room, feeling like I had been buffeted by giant fists. Lyric and her brother were about to leave, and I called after them." He glanced sideways at Lyric.  
>~ "Which brings us full circle," the Great Fairy concluded with a nod. "I see. You have done well, <em>all<em> of you. Better than I had dared hope.  
>~ "The time has come now for <em>my<em> explanation. I am aware that this is rather a lot of talking over of things which you already know, but bear with me, and you shall have your answer…as well as answers to questions you do not even know to ask.  
>~ "The first order of business is your original query. You have guessed right, <em>Dearcadh,<em> the boy you call Dark is not a simple servant of the Demon King, and he serves the evil one no more. The bond is broken, and can never be remade." Lyric made no motion of dissent, but the Great Fairy grinned wryly at something. "Ah. I can see from the look in your eyes that you are still uncertain, or that you doubt him, if not me. Allow me to elucidate. The night that _Féin-Gach_ entered this life, I had taken it upon myself to see what the Demon King was up to, and I alone was present to witness him bring the boy into existence. I gave to him what all living beings deserve: a choice. _Féin-Gach_ could easily have chosen his creators ways over my own, but though the Demon King was able to control Dark to _harm_ your brother, evil could not force him to make the killing blow against his will." She smiled at Dark. "You have done all of this on your own. I merely gave you the means to make the choice. Well done, _Féin-Gach._" She bent down and kissed his forehead. Dark looked like he had been hit over the head.  
>~ "<em>You, Dearcadh,<em> perceive that which your brother has refused to see. Your journey will surprise even you at times, but as long as you _perceive_ with clear, impartial eyes, you will never go wrong." And she bestowed a kiss upon Lyric's brow as well.  
>~ It went through her like a bolt of lightning. She felt as though she were opening her eyes for the first time. Her head spun, everything in her vision glowed with different colours, and she finally understood the expression on Dark's face.<br>~_ Like being hit over the head with a heavy object,_ she thought, dazed. And speaking of Dark…  
>~ But the Great Fairy was smiling down at the pair of them, as if Lyric's world hadn't just been turned inside out. "When you are weary of battle, please come back to visit me. And blessed be!" The Great Fairy sang with a huge grin, and vanished back into the crystalline waters of her fountain.<br>~ Lyric glanced at Dark, who glowed in her strangely altered vision, and he turned to meet her eyes at the same instant. He looked just as stunned as she felt. After a long moment, she broke eye contact and nodded to the door, not trusting her voice just yet. Dark apparently felt the same way, for he followed her in equal silence. Back through the shadowy tunnel they walked side by side, the only sound the soft tread of their boots on the stone floor. Lyric blinked several times, hoping her eyes would return to normal soon. Just as they reached the door, she heard a faint voice whisper, "_May Lilith guide and protect you._" Lyric froze. She glanced at Dark and found him doing the same. He had heard the voice as well.  
>~ But who was Lilith? Lyric knew of only three Goddesses, none of whom were known by that name. At last, she shook her head and pulled open the stone door, bathing them in late-afternoon sunlight.<p>

* * *

><p>~ "So basically, you're saying…you think that she was saying…what are you saying?" Dark asked, his thoughts extremely muddled.<br>~ "The choice she talked about. My guess is that she gave you a soul," Lyric replied, finishing off her bread.  
>~ Night had descended fast upon the mountain, and instead of trying to make the treacherous climb back down the cliff side, they were camping on the plateau, right out in the open, under the starts that were beginning to peek out as the veil of night slipped over them. Lyric had fished her blanket out of her bag, and they were sitting cross-legged on it across from each other, finishing up their humble meal and discussing their visit with the fairy.<br>~ "A soul," Dark said, trying it out. "Why do you think that?"  
>~ Lyric rolled her eyes. She seemed a bit more at ease around him now that she had gotten the reassurance she was looking for. "Come on. Ganon would never have thought to allow you one when he…made you. She gave you the right to choose, which means she had to at least <em>partly<em> break Ganon's hold over you." She licked a crumb from her fingers and continued. "Every living thing has the capacity for both good and evil within them, but it's the choice that defines which one we are."  
>~ Dark nodded thoughtfully, and they lapsed into contemplative silence, watching the moon slowly rise. After a long while, Lyric unstrapped her sword and shield and lay down; Dark copied her, though he did not feel even remotely tired. Twice he opened his mouth to ask her a question; each time, he closed it again, not knowing how to formulate his racing thoughts into words.<br>~ He was staring up at the seemingly endless black sky pinpricked with silver stars, when she jolted him out of his trance.  
>~ "You're a free man now," she said, in a softer voice than he had ever before heard her use. "The Great Fairy's word is more than good enough for me, and it'll be good enough for…the few of us who know your origins."<br>~ "It doesn't bother you, now," he asked, his voice slightly rough, "knowing where I came from?"  
>~ She didn't answer right away, considering his question. "It did…at first," she explained hesitantly. "But the more I get to know you…and then there's the Great Fairy's words, too. That was why I needed to know, you see," she turned to look at him, her face only partially illuminated in the moonlight. "I had to be sure of you, and as you saw for yourself…" she grinned. "The Great Fairy is…" she let her voice trail off.<br>~ Dark nodded. He could understand why Lyric would seek the fairy's counsel, and not doubt her word once given. He had a hundred questions racing through his mind, but the one that popped out first seemed least important.  
>~ "What did you do after Link disappeared?"<br>~ Her expression closed off, and she turned away. He thought she wasn't going to answer, and just as he opened his mouth to apologise, she spoke.  
>~ "I travelled for a while," she murmured. "By that time, Ganon was taking over everywhere, and there weren't many left who even <em>knew<em> how to fight, let alone willing to teach it to a _girl._" Her voice strengthened and she continued. "So I worked in different homes for a while, cooking, cleaning, whatever, in exchange for food, a safe place to stay, and whatever money they could spare. Saved up until I could afford to buy a horse. It took me almost two years, but finally I went to the ranch and…met Sabine, who became mine, and I hers." Now there was a smile in her voice. "After that, I finally went back to Nibask, where I had grown up. I hadn't been there in over four years, not since…" she trailed off, voice tight. He turned to look at her, but her face was inscrutable. "Anyway. He left me everything, his house, his weapons, his books…" she fell silent.  
>~ "Who?" Dark asked, when it seemed like she wasn't going to explain anything more.<br>~ "Sergeant Zevalan," she spoke the name like it pained her. "Zee. My mentor, the one who raised me, taught me to fight." She went quiet again, for a long time. So long, in fact, that Dark thought she'd fallen asleep. When she spoke again, it was in barely more than a whisper. "He died…when I was fourteen. He fell protecting me. My fault.  
>~ "Ah," she said in a normal voice, breaking the moment, "but this is all ancient history, and not very good bedtime stories. Go to sleep, Dark." And she rolled over so her back was to him.<br>~ He recognised the dismissal and turned away, but was no more sleepy now than he had been when he'd started this conversation.  
>~ It was a long time before sleep came for him.<p>

* * *

><p>~ Dawn broke, pale and early over the mountain. Lyric was already awake in the pre-dawn light, and watched the sun rise in peaceful silence. Seeing the light gradually pouring over the land, illuminating the world bit by bit, as if it were a magician's stage trick slowly being revealed.<br>~ She stretched, trying to shake off the remaining chills of the nightmare Dark's innocent question had brought back. _Though chills might have just as much to do with the cool mountain air as they do with bad dreams._ It was brisk this morning, even though it was only mid-September. She shook her head, mulling over the dream again.  
><em>~ I haven't had that nightmare for almost five years.<em> Unbidden, the memory of the dream returned full-force.

_~ "Link's time has come," Kaepora Gaebora was saying to a scowling Zee from his perch on a high branch. Teenage Lyric was right at his side, her eyes huge and staring. They had been hiking on a forest trail, with Zee pointing out poisonous plants and safe places to camp at night, when the great owl had blown down from the sky in a feathered flurry, bringing news of her youngest brother. "He has met his fairy at last, and has already been called to appear before the Great Deku Tree. They will meet within the week."  
><em>_~ "Well that's it, then!" Lyric had cried, turning to face Zee directly. He'd glowered up at Kaepora Gaebora and refused to look at her. "I've asked you to take me to meet my brother twice before now, and each time you refuse, saying that it's **not the right time.** Well, sir, that time has finally come. Will you take me to see him?"  
><em>_~ She had waited with baited breath, watching the side of his age-lined face as he continued to glare at the owl.  
><em>_~ "Thank you for bringing this news, Kaepora. Message received." He bowed slightly to the old owl. Kaepora hooted once and, with a beat of his great wings, departed.  
><em>_~ "Zee. **Sir.** This is my brother. I have to be there for him, I can help him—"  
><em>_~ "No!" Zee had snarled, finally meeting her gaze. "You're not ready. You are fourteen years old, Lyric, not eighteen. I can't allow—"  
><em>_~ "__Link's **ten,** I've got more than three years on him, not to mention that I've been learning how to fight practically since I could walk." She hadn't needed to say it, since he was one of the few that had encouraged her to learn, and had taught her after her parents died.  
><em>_~ He gave her a pained look she had no idea how to interpret. "Lyric…"  
><em>_~ "Does age dictate courage?" She'd snapped. "Does age indicate determination and strength? Does age decide worthiness and perseverance?" She sighed in frustration, but refused to give up. "I can't just…I can't just pretend this isn't happening. I'm the eldest, and I know more than he does. It's my responsibility to protect what little family I have left. I would be ashamed if I abandoned Link to struggle with this all alone. Please. I have to do this."  
><em>_~ His scowl deepened, until his already swarthy skin seemed black as pitch. After a long silence, he nodded. "We leave at dawn."  
><em>_~ She remembered being so excited to see her baby brother for the first time in ten years, with no thought to the dangers that lay ahead. Link had been an infant when they had been parted, and now she would finally know him as a real person.  
><em>_~ They did indeed leave at dawn, the sun barely illuminating the paths across Hyrule. Mists still floated over the ground, especially near the rivers, and the late-October air had acquired a permanent chill, even in the daylight hours. They rode all day, stopping in Lon-Lon Ranch to overnight, and starting out again at dawn the next morning, when the roads were once again safe.  
><em>_~ The sun was already setting in the west when the entrance of Kokiri Forest came into view. Lyric breathed a sigh of relief, unaccustomed to being on horseback for so long. She slipped from Strider's back the moment they came to a stop and stretched out the kinks in her back. Behind her, she heard Zee dismount as well, murmuring gentle words to Strider. Eager to see her brother again, she made for the entrance through a huge, wooden tunnel just ahead. She had just stepped into the mouth of the tunnel when she heard Strider's equine scream. She turned.  
><em>_~ Skeletal monsters were rising from the earth, surrounding Zee and his horse. Zee already had his sword out and was slashing away at them, but more and more were coming. Too many for him to fight alone. Automatically, she drew the sword he had given her before they had set out: a real one, made of steel.  
><em>_~ "No, Lyric!" He roared at her, swinging his sword so hard he knocked a skeleton's head clean off. "Just run! Get the hell out of here!" She dismissed his orders and stepped out of the tunnel, but a huge rumbling sound came from behind her. Something hard seized her around the middle and yanked her back into the tunnel.  
><em>_~ "**NOOOOO!** she screamed, her sword flying out of her hand. Her last glimpse of Zee was of a skeleton wrapping it's long, bony arms around him from behind._

~ Lyric shuddered again, still thinking of the past. She had screamed and cried and slammed her fists against the barrier that had come down from the ceiling, but to no avail. It wouldn't so much as budge. When dawn had finally come and the barrier rose from her path, she stepped out into the morning chill, already braced for the worst.  
>~ There hadn't been much left. A bloody mass of rags and some churned-up soil marked the place where Zee had fallen. Strider's saddle, also stained dark with blood, lay not far away. She'd collected all of these things together and fetched a shovel from the saddle-bags. All morning she had toiled as the sun rose overhead, never warming her enough to chase the chill from her bones. She knew no exhaustion, despite being awake the whole night. When she had finally dug a hole she'd deemed deep enough, she hauled herself out, covered in sweat and dirt, hands stained with blood and soil. She'd pulled everything useful from the saddlebags, including a packet of papers that looked important. Then she carefully lowered the saddle into the grave, followed by her mentor's sword and shield. She'd wished she'd had some flowers, or something of beauty to offer for their deaths, but she had <em>nothing.<em> As she sifted the dirt over the remains, a song came to her. She straightened up and sang her grief to the sky and the trees and the grass, the only ones to witness her tears. No words, just a melody of sorrow at the passing of her mentor, and respect for the soldier he had been.  
>~ When she had finished, she marked the tree beside the grave with a simple triangle carved into the trunk. The sun was already going down in the west, and she headed back to the safety of the tunnel alone. Just before she reached it, her boot had struck something hard, lying in the grass. She looked down.<br>~ The sword she had dropped the night before. She swooped down and snatched it up, yanking the blade from it's sheath aggressively. She turned it this way and that, watching the fading sun glint on the sharp steel. Her eyes narrowed.  
>~ She slung the scabbard strap over her shoulder and turned up her left palm. Before she could over-think it, she sliced the blade across her palm. Allowing blood to drip from her hand onto the ground where Sergeant Zevalan of the Hylian Royal Guard had fallen, she had sworn her oath to the sky, to the Goddesses, that she would follow in his footsteps and always fight for the greater good, for peace and honour, and to never forget this day.<p>

~ And she hadn't. Back in the present at last, Lyric unbuckled the leather-covered steel gauntlet from around her forearm and gazed down at the pearly scar on her left palm.  
>~ A scuffling sound from behind told her that Dark was finally waking up. She quickly buckled the gauntlet back where it belonged and stood, casting one last glance out over the wide world.<p>

* * *

><p>~ "What news from beyond our borders?" Lyric was asking the huge, bearded man behind the counter in the pub, finally back in Kakariko.<br>~ Dark was looking around curiously, trying not to be too conspicuous. The pub was dimly lit, with only two grimy windows to allow in any sunlight. There were few occupants, most of whom were staring morosely into their mugs of ale, all of whom were men.  
>~ "Well, there inna much comin' from <em>beyond our borders,<em> as you so dramatically put it," the man replied gruffly, wiping a glass with a white towel. Despite the grungy windows and unswept floor, behind the counter was meticulously clean. "Mos', we havn' heard from in far too long. Airas's been out o' touch for six years, Ellarose for five, Runiaäd for three. It's all lookin' grim, innit?" He added, lowering his voice. Lyric nodded, looking equally bleak. "I hear Ganon's been sendin' oot troops from that castle o' his. Lookin' fer yer brother's the word these days. Though I heard a few o' his scouts speakin' o' a pretty lass dressed in yella, worth four hundred rupees herself." He paused, letting that sink in. Dark dropped all pretence of minding his own business and stared at the man. "Not two days ago. Threw 'em out the minute I realised they meant you, o' course."  
><em>~ Of course you did,<em> Dark thought uncharitably.  
>~ "I won' have that sort o' riffraff in my pub," the barman continued, wiping clean another glass. "Though I hear Malon o' Lon-Lon Ranch needs an errand run, an' she's willin' ter pay. Thought you migh' find that o' interest." Lyric nodded in appreciation and paid the man for their drinks. As they turned to leave, the barman called, "When're you comin' back ter settle down, lass? My pub could use a lovely barmaid. You'd make far more workin' for me than yer doin' now…"<br>~ Dark waited for her to snap back at him, but she just laughed it off. "When your pub becomes more interesting than freelancing, I'll come back to work. Otherwise, you'll have to make do with someone else to sweep your floors and flirt with your guests." The barkeep laughed heartily at this and waved them out the door.  
>~ "Is everyone like that?" Dark asked as the descended the stone steps outside the pub.<br>~ "Is everyone like what?" Lyric asked, still grinning.  
>~ "Like…that," he replied, gesturing inarticulately to the pub behind them.<br>~ "Oh, he's harmless. It's a running joke between the two of us. My brother and I helped him out once, back when we were kids, and he's never forgotten it. He's very reliable, and trustworthy. He was loyal to the Good King, and he _hates_ Ganon. Evil's bad for business." She chuckled again and headed for the stables, Dark hurrying along in her wake.  
>~ He studied her face as she spoke with the stable master. She seemed infinitely more cheerful today than in all the time he'd known her. <em>Which,<em> he admitted to himself, _hasn't been very long._  
>~ "Ready to go?" Lyric asked, breaking his reverie. He nodded and stood, accompanying her and the horse from the stable, down the road, and out of the village.<p>

* * *

><p>~ "Where to now?" Dark asked from behind her, once they were on the road.<br>~ "Lon-Lon Ranch, to get you a horse," Lyric replied casually. She felt a shock go through him, but his arms stayed in place around her middle. "Ingo owes me a favour, and I'm calling it in."  
>~ "A-a horse?" Dark stammered. "B-but I can barely ride one!"<br>~ "You're riding one now," she reminded him, rolling her eyes. "But you can't sit behind me on Sabine forever, you know. You have to decide what you want to do now that you're free. And if you decide to go off on your own, you need a way to get around."  
>~ He was quiet for a long time. The sun wheeled overhead, filtering yellow-green light through the copse they were riding through. After a few silent hours, they stopped for a rest at the same small stream they'd enjoyed before.<p>

~ Lyric was stretched out under a willow watching the sunlight reflect on the water, when Dark sat down on her right, a decidedly stubborn look on his face.  
>~ "I don't want to go off on my own," he declared, that air of decisiveness growing with each word. "I've been alone in a room for the last seven years. I've had my share of being alone, and I don't to be again any time soon."<br>~ She stared at him. "Okay… Well, is there anything you _do_ want to do?"  
>~ Here his self-assuredness faltered; he bit his lip and looked away from her. "I don't know if I have any right to ask it, but I don't know what else to do," he murmured, as if to himself. "If I could…" He broke off and looked at her. "I want to stay with you."<br>~ Absolute silence followed these words. Even Sabine had stopped lapping up water and was listening. For the first time in a long while, someone had caught her off-guard. Lyric found that she didn't like it very much. She cleared her throat. _Why?_ was the first question she wanted to ask, but she thought that would be like asking someone why they fell in love with you, so she didn't. "I don't know what I'm going to be doing," she hedged instead. "Mostly, I either follow Link wherever he's going or I just wander around, looking for work. Though," she added, her brain already racing ahead, "I was thinking of running Malon's errand, which is bound to be easy pay, and we're headed there anyway." She nodded to the ranch in the distance. "Let me give this some thought," she said at last. "I don't want to be too hasty with this, but having a partner could be highly beneficial."  
>~ Dark nodded, his face inscrutable, before getting to his feet and walking away.<br>~ She mulled over his request in silence as Sabine went back to drinking water. After her initial, knee-jerk reaction of _No!,_ she made herself rethink it logically. There were pros to agreeing to this idea, but she hardly knew him. And she had promised herself, after Zee, that she wouldn't let herself get too attached to anyone until Hyrule was at peace. It was just too risky in the present climate, to let yourself become overly _fond_ of anyone, lest they die or turn on you.  
>~ Well. She had some time to think about it. Maybe she could take him with her on whatever errand Malon wanted taken care of, and see how it went.<br>~ _There are always options,_ she thought. She just had to find them.

* * *

><p>~ The sun was just starting to set behind them when Dark, Lyric, and Sabine trotted through the entrance of Lon-Lon Ranch. The sky had become overcast, so that it seemed even darker than usual. It was under this ominous sky that Dark first set eyes on Ingo, the current owner of the ranch. Not overly tall, he was thin but with a protruding stomach that strained against his coveralls. His black hair was oily, and his pale skin was mottled, as if he were sickly. Ingo stood glaring at them from the gate that led to the corral.<br>~ "What do _you_ want?" he demanded of Lyric as soon as they were within earshot. His voice was as oily as his hair, and Dark instantly disliked him.  
>~ "To call in the favour you owe, as well as food and lodging for myself, my friend, and my horse, for one night. Oh, and I need to see Malon as soon as possible." Lyric's voice brooked no argument, and as soon as they were close enough, Lyric dismounted smoothly to stand face-to-face with Ingo.<br>~ "_Favour?_" he sneered. "I recall no favour."  
>~ "Really," Lyric replied, tone sly. "Then allow me to jog your memory." She reached into her bag and pulled out a scroll of heavy parchment paper; one end was slightly crumpled.<br>~ Ingo scowled and shook his head. "Very well. What is your _favour?_"  
>~ "I require a horse for my friend. You're going to give me whichever one he chooses."<br>~ "_**What!**_" Ingo screeched. "Absolutely not! I may owe you a favour, kid, but I don't owe you a _horse._"  
>~ "You stated one favour <em>of my choice,<em> Ingo." She broke the wax seal and unfurled the scroll she held. Dark craned his neck to see what was written on it, but she turned it around to show Ingo. "That _is_ your signature there, isn't it?" He glowered at her, but nodded. "Very well, then. We'll choose which horse we'll be taking in the morning. For now, we need a room."

~ After the room had been paid for, the horses brushed, fed, and watered, and food prepared and eaten, they were shown to the room Lyric had procured for the night. The room was bland, to say the least. A single bed, pushed into the corner under a window facing the opposite row of buildings, a simple desk, two hard-backed wooden chairs, and an armoire. Ingo departed with a final, more salacious glance at Lyric, who seemed oblivious to his gaze. Dark barely managed to keep the look of disgust off of his face until the door shut behind the man; as soon as Ingo was gone, Dark turned to Lyric and muttered, "He is repulsive."  
>~ Lyric chuckled quietly. "Oh, I know. The ranch isn't even technically his," she continued, unbuckling her sword and shield and placing the shield on the desk. He quickly mirrored her actions. "Ingo stole this place from Talon, the true owner, after Ganon took over." She shook her head and turned away to poke through the armoire for sleepwear.<br>~ Seemingly for the first time, Dark realised there was only one bed.  
><em>~ There's nothing to be worried about,<em> he told himself. _We've slept side by side the last two nights, and this is no different._ Still, he couldn't shake the nervous feeling that curled up in his stomach.  
>~ "Here, catch!" Too late, he turned to the sound of Lyric's voice and caught a face-full of fabric; apparently she had found what she was looking for. He pulled the offending garment from his face to see Lyric grinning playfully at him. "Too slow," she declared.<br>~ "Only compared to _your_ unnatural reflexes," he grumbled. "Here, you get changed first. I'll wait outside." He dropped the pile of clothes on the end of the bed and stepped out the door, pulling it shut behind him.  
>~ Dark leaned against the wall, and blew out a frustrated breath. <em>If she doesn't think it's <strong>weird<strong> to sleep in the same bed, why is it that I do?_ He shook his head. It was too late to change their accommodations now, and he didn't want to split up when Ingo the Creep could be lurking around. He didn't trust that man as far as he could throw him.  
>~ A fly buzzed somewhere nearby, and another insect bit him on the neck. It must have been just one pain too many, because exhaustion suddenly swept over him, and eyelids started to droop. He slid down the wall until his butt hit the floor. He'd just rest for a few minutes…<p>

* * *

><p><em>~ That was odd,<em> Lyric thought, watching Dark hightail it out the door, then shrugged. Quickly, she stripped out of her pants and undershirt before pulling on the nightclothes. The thing was basically a dress, and came down to just past her knees, the sleeves hitting around the elbow. She yanked off her yellow cap and took the pins out of her dark brown hair, letting it fall loosely down her back to her waist. Her one concession to femininity. She folded the cap neatly on top of her clothes and ran a quick brush through her hair, remembering that Dark was outside the room, waiting to change. She tapped the brush on the door gently, and murmured, "Your turn."  
>~ Nothing.<br>~ She pulled the door open to find him gone. She frowned, and went back to fetch her gear, strapping on her sword and shield, and pulling on her boots. She crept through the hallway and down the stairs, thinking that she would look very foolish if Dark had only stepped outside for a breath of fresh air. Her instincts, though, were screaming at her that something was amiss, and right now was no time to start ignoring them.  
>~ Slowly and carefully, she pushed the door open, peeking outside. Nothing. And yet… She blinked, and suddenly she could see as clearly as if it were noon outside instead of nearly midnight. Shadows were still shadows, but it was as if everything had been thrown into sharp clarity. She could also see strangely glowing tracks on the moonlit grass. <em>Three sets of tracks.<em> She scowled, and followed them, keeping her senses sharp for anyone lying in wait to ambush her.  
>~ They led away from the corral⎯which was kept gated and locked at night, anyway⎯and out into Hyrule Field. She hid behind a thick pillar that marked the ranch entrance, and peeked around.<br>~ Two large, burly figures were pulling a cart behind them, and the moon obliged her by coming out from behind a cloud, which illuminated them: Dark lay bound and unconscious upon it. Silently, she drew her sword and shield, and followed them.  
>~ After a few minutes, she realised the men were heading for the Castle. She crept a little faster, trying to catch up. If they went into the Castle, Dark would never be seen again. If they turned around and saw her, one would stop to fight and waylay her, and the other would take off running with Dark, and he would never be seen again. Unfortunately, the nearest copse of trees was more than two hundred yards to her right, far out of reach of helpfulness. So she simply prayed for good luck and continued.<br>~ Her luck didn't hold, of course.  
>~ As adapt as she was at sneaking, they must have sensed someone behind them, and one turned. He shouted to his companion, who grabbed Dark off of the cart and bolted, exactly as she'd predicted. She swore, and ran forward to engage the first one.<br>~ As she closed with him, she realised he wasn't a man at all, but some sort of creature. His face was grotesque, distorted by huge, boar-like tusks protruding from his piggish mouth. His body was shorter but broader than an average man, and his eyes were a dull and murky brown, all the way to the edges, with no pupil. He was carrying a heavy axe, which she dodged before running at him and slamming into him with her shield, full-force. He made a grunt of pain, but the axe swung back up and she had to dodge it again, so it couldn't have hurt too much. She couldn't risk a direct strike from that axe. Even if she blocked it on her shield, it could break her arm.  
>~ She was standing well out of range of his wild swings, which meant that he was also too far away to strike. She couldn't take the time to fish in her bag for her bow and arrows, because he wouldn't give her enough time to get them out. She made a small noise of irritation as she dashed forward again. Once more she dodged the heavy axe, and swung her sword up, toward his unprotected neck.<br>~ He grunted, and she knew she had found her mark. She slammed her shield against his wrist that held the axe, hitting a nerve, and it fell from his hand. Having the opportunity she needed, Lyric jerked the sword back and jabbed hard upward, ramming it straight through his throat. He gurgled something incomprehensible, and she yanked the sword back out again, in a gush of dark blood. He fell hard, but she was already running full-tilt after his companion.  
>~ The other pig-boy hadn't gotten far. He must not have been in very good shape, because he was already wheezing from the effort of running and carrying Dark. He heard her footfalls behind him, but rather than try to outrun her, he turned, throwing Dark to the ground, and crossed swords with her just as she was about to run him through. He grinned at her. She did not smile back.<br>~ He shoved her back, then charged. She easily sidestepped him, smacking him in the head with her shield as he passed. He sprawled haplessly on the ground, his crude sword spinning away from him. In a second she was on him, placing her blade right against his throat, her foot on his back.  
>~ "<em>Don't move,<em>" she growled. "Tell me what you think you were doing, scum."  
>~ "Yer gonna kill me either way," he rasped, still out of breath. "Got no reason ter tell yeh nothin' at all."<br>~ "I don't _have_ to kill you," she breathed. "I just have to hurt you." She pressed the blade closer to his exposed flesh to prove her point.  
>~ He made a small noise, and she smiled, even though he couldn't see it. "Alrigh', girly, <em>alrigh'!<em>" he wheezed in alarm, her blade drawing a line of blood. "Th' boss wan's his puppet back. Said we was ter leave yeh fer Ingo, but ter bring back the silver-haired boy."  
>~ Lyric narrowed her eyes. <em>Leave me fore Ingo, indeed.<em> She took a deep breath through her nose, mastering her anger. _I should kill him,_ she thought. _He would do the same to me._ It was that thought that decided it for her.  
>~ "I'm going to give you one chance," she told him, her voice like ice, "and one chance only. I'll take my blade away, and you can walk away from all of this in peace. I never want to see your face again. This is my only offer." For a moment, she left the blade where it was so that he would understand that she was serious. Then she removed it and stepped back, keeping it warily at the ready.<br>~ The pig-boy stood slowly, brushing dirt from his shirt as he did so. After the span of several silent heartbeats, Ganon's soldier walked away.  
>~ As soon as he was far enough for Lyric's peace of mind, she turned and sprinted to Dark, still lying unconscious in the grass.<br>~ She skidded to a halt beside him, dropping to her knees. Her sword fell carelessly from her hand. She grasped his shoulders and shook him, hard. Noticing he was still tied up, she pulled a silver dagger from her boot and cut the ropes that bound his wrists and ankles. Then, more carefully, she sliced the cloth they'd gagged him with. Still, he did not stir.  
>~ Lyric made a small noise of frustration. She didn't have <em>time<em> for this. They were out in the open, completely exposed, and anything could happen. Instinctively, her muscles tightened, and the place between her shoulder blades began to ache, as if expecting an attack. She scowled and looked around in typical paranoid fashion, and, seeing no one, returned her attention to her insentient partner. Lyric gripped his shoulders again and shook him, to no avail.  
>~ A thought occurred to her, and she slapped him across the face; not enough to injure him, but hopefully enough to jolt him into consciousness.<p>

* * *

><p>~ Dark's cheek was stinging. He stirred, his body cold and wet. <em>How did I get back inside the Room of Illusions?<em> his groggy mind wondered. He didn't particularly want to move any time soon. Every part of him ached.  
>~ Suddenly someone warm clutched his shoulders and shook him. "Wake up, Dark! Get <em>up,<em> dammit!" a voice snarled above him. He knew that voice.  
>~ His eyes cracked open to reveal Lyric kneeling over him, lines of frustration and worry on her face. The round, nearly full moon did little to illuminate her, but he blinked a few times and she came into focus.<br>~ "Good, you're conscious. Can you walk? We need to get out of here," she told him all in a rush, before glancing around with distinct unease.  
>~ "Wha...'m I doin' outside?" he slurred groggily, bringing a hand to his head, which had begun to ache ferociously. He blinked again and noticed something odd. "…Your hair…" he murmured vaguely.<br>~ She frowned at him and stood up, crossing her arms. "We're in the middle of Hyrule field, less than a day's ride from the castle, and you're worried about my hair?" She rolled her eyes.  
>~ He grinned sheepishly, still dazed. Lyric gripped his elbow and, before he could brace for it, hauled Dark to his feet. He staggered and nearly fell again, his equilibrium all over the place. Lyric had grabbed him before he fell, and he leaned on her for a moment. The world spun around him, and he squeezed his eyes shut, nearly doubling over. He concentrated on breathing deeply, and after a moment, his head cleared and he looked up.<br>~ His reaction was immediate; in a single motion, he snatched Lyric's sword from it's sheath behind her shoulder and shoved her to the right, just in time to stop an ugly, pig-like creature from slitting her throat. Both hands on the sword, he deflected the enemy's blade down, then swung it back up with all his might, and sliced the creature's head clean off. Blood sprayed from the wound as the body fell, soaking Dark's clothes.  
>~ Lyric was looking up at him from the ground where she'd fallen, a look of surprise still on her face. It seemed to Dark that that an eon had passed, yet the whole ordeal was over in mere moments.<br>~ Lyric glanced down at her sword, still gripped tightly in his blood-soaked hands, then grinned up at him. "You know you're cleaning that before you return it to me, right?"

~ They made for the ranch, feet sliding on wet clumps of grass, eager to be out of the open. Their path was well-lit in the moonlight, and that was the problem: they both felt too exposed, too vulnerable.  
>~ In a hushed voice, Lyric recounted the events since he has been drugged unconscious. His fury grew, and as it did his stride increased, until they were all but running. Under the arch declaring for all to see that this was Ingo's Ranch, and up the well-worn path they sprinted. Just before they reached the main buildings, Lyric grabbed his arm and yanked him to a stop.<br>~ "What!" he snarled.  
>~ "Keep your voice down," she responded quietly, a cool determination radiating from her. "And calm down. Anger like that won't help you here."<br>~ "How do you expect me to just _calm down?_" he demanded, albeit more quietly. "How can I just _accept_ that Ingo plotted against you? Against _me?_ I don't even _know_ the bastard!" Despite the earlier warning to restrain himself, his voice was rising again, almost beyond his control. He didn't care.  
>~ Lyric simply looked at him, no emotion on her face, which just wound him up more.<br>~ "How can _you_ be so complacent about this? You should be even angrier than I! You should⎯" He stopped as if struck dumb. Lyric had held up a hand⎯nothing more⎯and the simple gesture was enough to stop him in his tracks.  
>~ "Firstly," she began, her tone as brisk as a winter's morning, "don't you ever again tell me what I <em>should<em> be feeling." She pierced him with her gaze, and he dropped his eyes. "Secondly," she continued, "you need to get control of yourself. I did not say, nor will you ever _hear_ me say that one should not _feel_ anger. You need to _master_ it. Focus it correctly, so that you can use it to get the results you want. Instead of _it_ controlling you."  
>~ He scowled at his feet, but to his own amazement, the hot edge of his fury had cooled, and his harried thoughts had cleared into logic. She waited until he looked up at her, calm and collected, before she spoke again.<br>~ "A warrior who cannot master their own anger is bound to succumb to it." Her voice was whisper-soft.  
>~ He nodded, and she gestured ahead of them. He took the lead, but now he had a plan.<p>

* * *

><p>~ <em>"A warrior who cannot master her anger is bound to succumb to it."<em>  
>~ Lyric stuffed down the echoes of the past as she and Dark crept silently through the house, headed for Ingo's quarters. At the bottom of the stairs, Lyric caught Dark's sleeve and whispered to skip the step second from the bottom and second from the top before going up ahead of him.<br>~ They reached the top floor landing without incident. Lyric headed off down the hall, Dark close on her heels; they stopped outside of the third door. She rested her hand on the knob, but didn't try to turn it. They both waited, breath bated, the silence heavy on their ears. Finally, after concluding that there was no one inside, she twisted the handle and pushed open the door.  
>~ The room was sparsely furnished, the bed and table visible even in the dim light from the moonlit window. Lyric nodded to herself and stepped inside. Dark followed, and she immediately shut the door behind him.<br>~ "We'll wait here," she murmured. "When Ingo returns, we'll jump him. See how _he_ likes it."  
>~ She crossed the room soundlessly and sat down cross-legged on the edge of the bed, her back erect. Dark stayed near the door, to stop the man from making a run for it.<br>~ Within a few minutes, they heard the front door below bang open, and the squeak of the stairs under heavy footfalls. Whoever was coming wasn't troubling to keep quiet. Dark met Lyric's eyes, and she nodded. The man stomped down the hallway, coming closer, and they could hear him muttering angrily to himself.  
>~ "<em>Gone!<em> How can they both be gone? Well, her horse is still here, so they'll have to come back soon enough…" The door flew open with a bang. Ingo stomped into the room, winding together a length of rope. Dark stepped behind him silently, and closed the door with a snap.  
>~ Ingo jumped and whirled around. "You!"he snarled. Then the snarl slid from his face, for if Dark were here, it meant the other one was, as well. He turned slowly to where Lyric was sitting, covered in nearly as much blood as Dark was and infinitely more frightening for it, an icy smile cemented on her face.<br>~ "Hello, Ingo," she said smoothly, getting up from the bed in one fluid motion. "How kind of you to join us. Though I must say, your hospitality has changed greatly since last I came here." She made her voice deliberately casual.  
>~ "Lyric!" Ingo exclaimed, attempting to sound casual as well, though the tremor in his voice gave him away. "What are you doing here? I trust there were no problems with the room?"<br>~ She sighed, already bored of this game. She took two swift steps toward him and punched him hard in the gut. All his breath whooshed out and he fell to his knees. She yanked the rope out of his hands and indicated for Dark to bring her the straight-backed chair in the corner. She shoved Ingo into the chair and tied him to it with deft, practiced motions.  
>~ "Don't kill me!" Ingo gasped desperately.<br>~ "That was not my intention," Lyric replied in an icy voice, her gaze locked on Ingo's. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Dark glance questioningly at her, but she ignored him. "You sold us out to Ganondorf."  
>~ "I didn't!" he shouted, looking terrified.<br>~ "Don't bother denying it. I _know_ the truth. How much did they pay you to drug Dark with the blow dart?" She held up a thin, reed-like pipe and a tiny prick, hardly bigger than a pine needle. If possible, Ingo looked even more frightened. "Can't have been very much, since you were still intending to extract _payment_ from me." Ingo looked stunned. "How exactly did you think you were going to get it? Did you think I would come willingly to you in order to save Dark, as if my own tracking skills were so lacking that I couldn't find him on my own? Or did you think you could somehow take me by _force_?" Her voice fell flat on the last word. "Well, whatever you thought, you were mistaken. I have dispatched Ganon's men. They were pathetically easy to outwit. Now," she continued, her tone changing to something soft and dangerous, and Ingo's face lost the last of its colour. "I want to know exactly how much you were paid, and how many more are coming."  
>~ "No more are coming," Ingo responded too quickly.<br>~ Lyric sighed. She had hoped against hope that it wouldn't come to this, but she had no choice. She backhanded him across the face. The sound of the slap was a jolt to everyone, breaking the quiet stillness with violence.  
>~ "<em>How much,<em> and _how many more._" She snapped. "_Don't_ make me ask you again."  
>~ Ingo slumped in the chair and sighed in defeat. <em>He can dish out the pain, but he can't take it. A bully and a coward,<em> she thought.  
>~ "The money is in the bottom of the third drawer, at the back," Ingo said, jerking his head toward the chest of drawers against the far wall. Dark left her side and was back in a moment, carrying a small black leather bag.<br>~ "How many more will come after us, now that these two are dead?" Lyric asked Ingo, clenching the bag of rupees tightly in her fist.  
>~ "I…I don't know," he stammered. "Honestly! All I was told was that if a man who looked similar to Link showed up dressed in dark clothes, especially accompanied by you, that I was to contact him immediately. I don't know what his interest is in you."<br>~ Lyric scowled. "You didn't ask him any questions, like _why_ he wanted us?"  
>~ Ingo gave her a look. "Of course not. He offered payment for information on you. Asking questions is bad for business."<br>~ Mentally, she rolled her eyes. She should have realised that herself. She glanced at Dark, who was glaring at Ingo with fire in his eyes. " Very well," she said at last. Her voice was hard as steel. "I'm getting a full refund on the room we paid for." She emptied the bag into her palm and counted out her rupees. The rest she threw at Ingo, where they cascaded across his lap and on the floor. "May they serve you well," she finished coldly, then turned and stalked out. They left him tied to the chair, blood money scattered uselessly all around him.

* * *

><p>~ Dark and Lyric went back to their room. At the door, Lyric murmured something about getting cleaned up, and fetched some extra sleepwear from the room before directing both of them to the facilities at the end of the hall.<br>~ By now, Dark was so exhausted he was stumbling. The adrenalin had worn off, and it left him feeling fatigued and mildly ill, though he thought the latter may have been from whatever they'd dosed him with. Behind him, Lyric ignited a lamp resting upon a tall-standing table by the doorway, which had a circular mirror above it. The single flame offered light to the room.  
>~ Lyric placed a set of the sleepwear on the table by the lamp and murmured that he wash up, before stepping back out of the room and left him to privacy.<br>~ He quickly stripped off his soiled clothes and dumped them in a basket beneath the table. He managed to get the tap on the bath to run enough hot water into the basin to clean himself with, and stepped in.  
>~ Ten minutes later, he rinsed off the last of the suds of soap and drained the dirty water before grabbing a soft towel from a nearby shelf to dry off. He dressed quickly, mindful of Lyric waiting her turn in the hallway. As soon as he was decent, he crossed the room and opened the door to allow Lyric her turn. She offered him a small smile and told him to go back to their quarters. Too tired to disagree, he obeyed her command. When he reached the room, his paranoia asserted itself. Dark lit the lamp and searched it for any other adversaries. Only when he found it empty and in the same state they had left it did he relax.<br>~ Lyric, it seemed, was even quicker in the bath than he'd been, because it seemed that almost no time had passed before the door creaked open and she padded into the room on bare feet. She took the straight-backed wooden chair and wedged it under the handle of the closed door before placing her sword within reaching distance of the bed. Clearly it was not only _his_ paranoia that was awake tonight.  
>~ Too exhausted to be nervous about sleeping in a bed with a girl he hardly knew, Dark was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, and he didn't wake until morning.<p> 


	5. Chapter 5

**The Legend of Lyric**  
><strong>Chapter 5<br>~Horse Mistress~  
><strong>

_~ "A warrior who cannot master her anger is bound to succumb to it."  
><em>~ _Lyric nodded, trying to push back her emotions, to stuff them down. She sat cross-legged upon a rock in the middle of nowhere, eyes closed, Zee circling her perch like a dark wolf. She took a long, slow breath. Then another. And another.  
><em>~_ "You're not hearing me!" Zee snapped. "You can feel your anger, you know what it wants. Feeling it is not wrong. Whether you give in to it or not is **your** choice. Lashing out will not help you. If you have allowed your anger to blind you, then you have already lost."  
><em>~_ His words made sense. She knew they did, in the marrow of her bones where things were simply **known.** She reached deep inside herself to understand how to hold reservoirs of patience.  
><em>~_ It took a long time._

~ Lyric woke from the dream all at once. She needed to get up, to move, to shake it off. Quickly and silently, she got out of bed and went down the hall to the washroom. Inside, she splashed frigid water on her face. Though it was only September, some nights were already very cold. Farmers everywhere were counting down the days until the final harvest, praying that the frost would not come before they could collect their crops from the fields.  
>~ With a sigh, she straightened up and looked at her familiar face in the mirror: the same dark brown hair, bright blue eyes, pointed nose, and small mouth that had always looked back at her. The same bearing she'd worn at age twelve, albeit with the weight of the intervening years.<br>~ With a frown, she realised that she was staring rather uselessly at her own reflection; without another glance, she turned away and went back to the room.  
>~ Dawn was breaking on the horizon, sending warm, gilded sunlight into the room. She watched the sun lighten the sky, thinking about what to do with Ingo.<br>~ They couldn't simply let him go, he had betrayed them. She wouldn't kill him unless she had to; certainly she didn't _want_ to kill him. Something about him had seemed…wrong. Ingo had been a grump for as long as she'd known him, but he had always been loyal to only one person: himself. If he was declaring himself to be loyal to Ganon, she had to believe it was because Ganon had done something to make it so.  
>~ A thought snapped into her brain: perhaps Ganon was <em>controlling<em> Ingo. The ranch owner had to realise that Ganon would never share anything he considered to be his, especially power. Whether Ingo had done a deal with him or if Ganon had simply taken what he wanted by force, it stood to reason that what had been done could be undone.  
>~ As soon as she realised this, Lyric made up her mind what to do. She dressed in silence, not even sparing a glance for Dark until she was about to remove the chair from under the door. She stopped and looked back at her potential partner; if he were her partner, she should wake him and bring him along, but she didn't want to wait.<br>~ Which was it to be, patience and trust, or expedience and wariness?

* * *

><p>~ Dark stirred from sleep. His body didn't want to move. It had been a long night, and now he was warm and very comfortable. Lacking any surety of when he would be either of these things again made him inclined to keep his eyes shut, but some inner sense was telling him to get up.<br>~ Lyric was standing by the door, fully dressed and gazing at him with a slight frown, chewing her bottom lip. He blinked and sat up.  
>~ She smiled. "Nice hair," she teased. He knew it must be sticking up everywhere, but he had no care for that at the moment.<br>~ "Where are you going?"  
>~ Her smile slid away. "I've had a thought about Ingo, and I want to see if I'm right." Lyric hesitated just a moment, then said, "Come with me."<br>~ She couldn't have surprised him more if she'd kissed him, but he grabbed at the chance. "Okay," he replied, and swung his feet out of bed, all thoughts of sleeping in forgotten. In two minutes he was ready to go, boots on his feet and sword on his back over his sleepwear, as she had done the night before. She nodded once, before turning and pulling the chair from under the door handle. She opened the door and led the way out of the house, into the chill morning air.  
>~ Back into the main house, back up the stairs which creaked second from the bottom and second from the top, back down the hallway to the third door, which Lyric pushed open without a moment's hesitation.<br>~ Ingo was as they had left him, but for one thing: he was asleep, slumped forward in the chair, the ropes being the only thing keeping him in it. Dark watched in silence, his whole body at the ready if Ingo should do much as twitch in Lyric's direction, but he remained unconscious. Lyric approached him but stood just out of arm's reach. Bending toward him slightly, she hummed a single note, which seemed to Dark to reverberate in his skull. Apparently satisfied, Lyric straightened up and glanced at Dark before returning her attention to Ingo. She took a deep breath, and once more surprised Dark, this time by beginning to sing.

_"Riko jumalattomat loitsu  
>Remake hänet hyvin."<em>

~ It was a short song, only a few lines, but the sound seemed to Dark to become a solid thing, and it wrapped around Ingo like a blanket. As the last note died away, both warriors stared at Ingo; for several heartbeats, nothing happened.  
>Then came the sound of something cracking, like hard ice in the spring thaw, and the invisible blanket of power around Ingo shattered. They were both forced to take a step back from the force of it; Dark could feel the shards of cold magic fly past, but none struck him.<br>~ Lyric lowered the arm she had flung up in front of her face when the spell broke and surveyed Ingo with suspicion in her eyes. Cautiously, she approached him. She touched his shoulder, and when he didn't react in any way, she knelt down beside the chair, pulled her dagger from her boot, and cut away the ropes binding him to the seat. Finally free, Ingo began to fall forward, but Lyric caught him and lifted him with surprising ease, carrying him to the bed. She laid him upon it, gently tugged off his boots, and placed them on the floor beside the bed. She did no more than this, and when she was finished, she crossed the room to Dark's side, nodding that they could leave.  
>~ Dark cast one glance back at Ingo, wondering exactly what had happened and whether he would get an explanation or not. <em>Though,<em> he admitted to himself as he shut the door silently behind him, _he looks better already. Whatever she did to him made him less…oily._ Well, whatever had happened, it must have been a good thing. Dark shrugged and followed Lyric out of the house, into the crisp autumn morning.

* * *

><p>~ When they reached the kitchen, Lyric started bustling about, gathering up herbs and ingredients, as well as a short knife. A large pot was already bubbling over the hearth fire. She laid her burdens on the table nearest the fire and began chopping, scooping handfuls at a time into the pot.<br>~ "Breakfast will take a few minutes," she told Dark over her shoulder. "Go up and get properly dressed." He obeyed her in silence, and soon she was alone with her thoughts.  
><em>~ It shouldn't matter what Dark, who is practically still a stranger, thinks of me. But still, I am glad he didn't freak out over the spell.<em> She stirred the soup, sniffed it, added some dried basil. _I wonder what work Malon needs done?_ They wouldn't be finding out until after Dark had chosen a horse, anyway, but she was still curious. In the present climate, people had little money for trivialities, and sometimes not even for necessities. Surprising, then, that Malon would choose to hire someone instead of simply going herself.  
>~ A creak behind her said that Dark was dressed and standing in the doorway of the kitchen. Then she heard a rather amusing rumble.<br>~ "I heard that," Lyric said without turning around. "I'm glad you're hungry. Have a seat, it's almost done." He did so.  
>A moment later, Lyric reached for one of the bowls on the table and ladled into it a healthy portion of soup. She cut a hunk of rough, grainy bread from a loaf and a wedge of aged cheese, and placed them on a plate before bringing them to Dark.<br>~ "Thank you," he said with a grin. As he picked up his spoon and dug in, she went back for her own breakfast.  
>~ When she'd settled across the table from him, he spoke again. "You seem surprisingly at ease in the kitchen."<br>~ "I used to work in the pub we visited in Kakariko," she reminded him, tearing off a piece of the bread and dunking it in the broth. "I learned there. It's a useful skill, let me tell you. If you don't cook, you don't eat. Everyone needs at least _basic_ cooking skills." She frowned. "My brothers would rather I stayed in the kitchen than _foolishly risking my life,_ like I am right now."  
>~ Dark frowned and dunked his bread in the broth. They ate in silence for a few minutes before he spoke again. "It seems like a waste."<br>~ "What?"  
>~ He looked up at her. "You have incredible skill with a sword. Why would they want to hold you back from something you can clearly do so well? Certainly it's a risk, but opening your own pub, or what have you, would also be risky." He picked up the bowl and drained its contents. Lyric just stared at him. He set the bowl down and continued. "If things in Hyrule are as bad as you have indicated, why wouldn't you use every resource to make it better?"<br>~ She blinked. It was one thing to know a person held a certain opinion, and another entirely to hear it declared. It took her a moment to find her voice. "Thank you," she said quietly. "Most people I meet…don't approve. It doesn't matter, because their opinions mean little to me. But it's nice to know at least _one_ person thinks I'm not wasting my time."  
>~ She finished the last of her soup and stood, collecting the empty dishes and depositing them in the sink. "Let's go," she said briskly, trying to make her voice light after the intense conversation a moment ago. "Equestrian time!"<br>~ Dark's face clearly showed his apprehension, but he said nothing, following her out into the brilliantly sunlit pasture.

* * *

><p>~ The gated enclosure was open once more, now that the sun had risen fully. Horses were grazing contentedly on the fresh green grass in the enclosure, or cantering slowly across the field, or drinking from the fresh-water troughs built under the canopy at the far end. Dark spotted Lyric's horse, Sabine, watching them from a distance.<br>~ "How do I choose a horse?" he asked Lyric quietly.  
>~ "It's not that simple," she replied. "Nobody but morons ever simply <em>choose<em> a horse. A horse chooses a person equally. If there is no bond of any kind, it's nearly impossible to get a horse to listen to you. For now, just walk around a bit." She waved her arm around, to indicate the entire enclosure. "The moment I saw Sabine, I knew she was meant to be with me." Lyric smiled. "And she knew it, too. When you find the right horse, you'll know."  
>~ Dark rolled his eyes as he walked away. <em>Trust Lyric to give me cryptic horse advice that mainly consists of, "Just wing it!" Very helpful.<em> With these sparse directions in mind, he wandered aimlessly around the pasture. The first horse he approached backed away from him, tossing its head and snorting. He stopped immediately and walked in a different direction. _I seriously doubt a horse "meant" for me would be afraid of me. Next!_  
>~ He wandered over to Sabine, greeted her quietly, patting her neck, then continued walking, being careful not to step in horse droppings. When he glanced in Lyric's direction, he felt a flash of annoyance when he saw she wasn't looking at him, making sure he didn't get trampled to death by huge freaking horses. Then he noticed a woman with long red hair standing beside her. They were talking animatedly, waving their arms and laughing. He stopped and watched them giggling together like young girls. He smiled.<br>~ Suddenly Lyric turned and looked straight at him. He jumped guiltily, waved at her, and quickly turned away. He staggered forward blindly, concentrating too intently on trying to feign innocence, and walked right into a wall.  
>~ Or at least it felt like a wall, except that walls are not usually furry. He stumbled back and nearly lost his footing. <em>Pay attention, dammit! You do this in battle and you're going to get yourself<em> **and** _Lyric killed._ He looked up to see what he had walked into, and found himself staring at a huge, pure-white horse with a black mane and tail.  
>~ This horse tossed its head and stared right back at him, neither retreating nor advancing. Dark straightened up and considered this horse. <em>No way a white horse is meant for me,<em> he thought, and turned away. There was a sound of hoof beats from behind him, and he soon found his way blocked again by the steed. He made an irritated sound and turned away again, and found himself blocked yet again by the white horse.  
>~ "Get out of it," he snapped, scowling at the stallion. The horse, however, seemed unfazed, and snorted right Dark's face. He decided to stare right back, noticing through his irritation that the horses eyes were a strange shade of orange. He kept his rust-red eyes locked on those fiery orange ones, not blinking, not backing down. He blocked out everything except those eyes, let his mind detach from his surroundings, until all that was left was the battle of wills between himself and this horse. Nothing else existed; he was determined to win this strange confrontation.<br>~ After what seemed like an eternity, the horse finally bowed its head and lowered its front leg into a kind of equestrian bow; Dark bowed back.  
>~ Suddenly the world started moving again; wind brushed past him, the sun was hot on his shoulders, and there was a voice yelling his name.<br>~ "Dark!" Lyric said loudly, standing right beside him. "Are you back now?" She waved a hand in front of his face, and he grabbed it. She grinned. "Yep, you're back." She squeezed his hand, and he let go quickly, looking away.  
>~ "I think that's your horse," Lyric said amiably. "He's beautiful."<br>~ "Archer's been here for years," another voice said from behind him. He turned to see the red-haired woman walking toward them. She wore a simple, homespun blue dress which rippled in the light breeze. Her fiery red hair she wore loose to her waist, and she smelled, not unpleasantly, of horses and earth. She was smiling at him, and he realised with a jolt that she was quite pretty.  
>~ Lyric stepped forward to make introductions. "Dark, this is Malon, co-owner of Lon-Lon Ranch, Horse Mistress of Hyrule. Malon, this is Dark, my friend and...partner. He's the one looking for a horse today." There was only the slightest hesitation in her voice when she said <em>partner.<em> He doubted Malon had even noticed.  
>~ "Well, it seems you've found one, Dark," Malon said, addressing him directly. "Archer is a fine horse. I'm glad he finally chose someone."<br>~ "W-what? I don't…" he trailed off, unsure of what had just happened. Did his winning the "contest" mean that Archer was meant to be his horse? And had Dark chosen the horse, or was it the other way around? He frowned slightly in confusion. "I'm not sure he chose me. We kind of…got into an argument? If one can argue with horses," he added, feeling foolish.  
>~ "One can absolutely argue with horses," Malon replied serenely, as though she heard this all the time. Lyric nodded as well. "Though it is sometimes advisable not to. You seem to have won the argument, though, so no harm done."<br>~ "Does that…make him mine, then?" Dark asked quietly.  
>~ Lyric spoke up. "That's the bond I spoke of." She glanced at Malon before continuing. "Almost the same thing happened between Sabine and I years ago. The only difference is that I knew it for what it was right away."<br>~ "Knew what?"  
>"The bond. It's a kind of magic, but it's magic anyone can access, because it's Horse magic. Link has it with his horse, as well. Now you have it with Archer. Can't you feel it?"<br>~ As soon as she mentioned it, he _could._ Like a nudging presence against his thoughts; not unpleasant, just _different._ He turned and looked right at Archer, who bobbed his head in a kind of nod, as if to say, _Yes, that's me._ Dark nodded in return, then turned back to face Lyric and Malon. Lyric was grinning.  
>~ "See?" she said instantly. "Told you."<br>~ "Time to get you up there, I think," Malon added lightly. Dark's nerves started to tense up again, but a nudge from Archer reassured him, and he calmed. He could do this.  
>~ "Okay," he said.<p>

* * *

><p><em>~ Dark's taken to horses like he was born to it,<em> Lyric thought half an hour later. She had taught him the basics of horse care: brushing, horseshoes, cleaning, and so on, before Malon took over and reiterated Lyric's saddle lessons, then went on to include health and diet.  
>~ They were out in the field right now, racing around the outer edge of the enclosure as she perched on the fence, swinging her feet, an apple in her hand and Sabine at her side. She watched them thunder past, Archer and Castaway, Malon's favourite horse, neck and neck. Malon pulled ahead slightly, and beat Dark to the finish line by barely a second. Dark slowed Archer to a trot and said something to Malon with a smile. Lyric grinned. Dark was evidently nothing like her brother, because Link would have insisted on a rematch, and they would have been there all night. They turned their horses and heading back to Lyric's seat on the fence. She patted Sabine's neck and offered her the apple. Sabine took it delicately between her teeth, and in a few chomps, it was gone.<br>~ "Nice one, Malon!" she told her friend when they trotted up beside her. "Two out of three, you know my brother would have insisted on going again to try and beat you."  
>~ Malon laughed heartily in agreement. "Yes, he would have. He's too stubborn for his own good." She swung her leg over the horse's rear and dismounted in one fluid motion. Like Lyric, Malon rode a horse astride, as a man does, rather than sidesaddle. "And he would have kept at it until he either won or until Epona forced him to stop."<br>~ "That's Link for you."  
>~ "So," Malon said briskly, changing the subject. "Are you two staying another night, or are you heading out?"<br>~ Lyric glanced at Dark. "Actually," she explained, "I heard rumor in Kakariko that you had an errand you wanted run. If you haven't found anyone for the job, I— _we'll_ do it."  
>~ Malon's eyebrows rose slightly, but she didn't comment on Lyric's slip. "It's a basic job—delivery. I've been hoping to get the trade routes open again. Three crates each of Lon-Lon milk to villages in the north. Ellarose and Airas. I need to get their shipments out to them, but I can't leave the horses.<br>~ "I didn't think I'd find a pair for this job, not for a long time. How does 150 rupees sound?"  
>~ Lyric nodded and looked at Dark. "What do you think?"<br>~ He seemed surprised at being asked. "Er—" he began haltingly. "It makes no difference to me. I've never been north."  
><em>~ He's never been anywhere,<em> Lyric thought. "Alright, Malon, we'll take the job."  
>~ Malon grinned. "Great. You'll stay the night, right? Get a fresh start in the morning?"<br>~ "Yes," Lyric responded with a nod. "That'll be the safer way."  
>~ "Lovely. I'll get the paperwork. Come with me, and we'll get everything sorted."<p>

* * *

><p>~ Price agreed upon, plan set, and arrangements finally made, Dark made a mark on Malon's official documents and stretched out the kink in his back. He'd thought the plan was simple enough; <em>why,<em> then, it took them over three hours to make all of these "official" arrangements was beyond him. Breakfast seemed an eternity ago, and he wasn't sure how much longer the two would sit in discussion about road conditions, so he left them to it and wandered back outside.  
>~ The sun had already begun it's descent in the west, and the few clouds in the sky were dyed brilliant gold and orange. He meandered across the field to where Archer was grazing and simply watched, still marvelling at the connection he could feel in his mind. It was both an empowering and restful feeling, unconditional love and kindness coupled with strength and honour, a kind of <em>worthiness<em> he never thought he'd find.  
>~ He smiled. <em>Worthiness,<em> he thought. _Now there's a concept._  
>~ He sat down on an upturned bucket and watched the horses play.<p>

~ "Dark! Dinner's almost ready! Come on!"  
>~ Lyric's voice jolted him out of reverie; she was standing at the door of the house, waving at him. He waved in return, and she went back inside. He stood and stretched; the sun had slipped beyond the treetops without his noticing, and the air was chilly again. He gave Archer one last pat and headed for the house.<br>~ Inside the kitchen it was warm and bright, and there was a wonderful scent on the air.  
>~ "Get in, and shut the door behind you!" Lyric ordered him as she hurried past, sounding more like a mother hen than he'd ever heard before. "You're letting the warmth out." He did as commanded and leaned against the door, staying out of the way of the bustling women.<br>~ "Next time," Lyric said, stirring a pot over the fire, "I'll teach you to cook and then _you_ can help!" She and Malon laughed uproariously at this, as if it wasn't the first time they'd said it.  
>~ All joking aside, in a few minutes they had the table groaning under dishes of food: a roast chicken, a pot of stew, the last of the fresh greens in a crisp salad, and a coarse, grainy bread. Dark had never experienced an evening like this before. Malon sat across the table from them, and the meal was fulfilling in more ways than one. The food was rich, hot, and tasty, and the company was exuberantly merry, telling jokes and teasing one another.<br>~ His favourite moment came unexpectedly, halfway through the meal. Lyric had just finished telling a hilarious story about the first time she and Link went fishing at Lake Hylia, when the door opened behind them and let in the brisk evening air. Dark stiffened and turned to face the intruder, but before he could open his mouth to ask Lyric who the man was, Malon shrieked and bolted for the door, overturning her chair.  
>~ "Daddy!" she sang, throwing herself at the burly man in the doorway.<br>~ "Talon," Lyric murmured to Dark. "Lon-Lon Ranch's true owner, come home at last."  
>~ They made him welcome and set him a place of honour at the head of the table, and Dark scooted around closer to Lyric to give him space. Talon, a thickset, bearded man with an amiable face, told them stories of the strange strangers that passed through Kakariko, where he had been staying in his absence. Malon hung on his every word, clearly overjoyed to have her father back, and Lyric's face shone with happiness.<br>~ Dark sat back, taking it all in—holding this one perfect moment in his memory when he was full and warm, and everyone was happy and safe. He glanced to his right to see Lyric, eyes closed, nodding along as if to a tune only she could hear, and knew that she was doing the same.

~ Dark was awoken early the next morning—before even the sun had risen—by Malon, cup of kavà in her hand and a grin on her face. Lyric had apparently risen already, for her side of the bed was empty and her sword and shield were gone.  
>~ Fifteen minutes later, after getting dressed himself, Dark found her in the kitchen again. She was packing up some provisions for the road, a steaming mug of her own nearby. He sat down at the table to break his fast with some of last night's leftovers, now gone cold, though no less delicious.<br>~ Once his hunger was sated he went outside, to help Malon and Lyric hitch up the horses. Two short, carriage-wheeled carts had been provided to carry the crates to the towns in the north. Two long arms extended from one end which connected to a special harness that fixed loosely around the horses' necks and across their bodies. Thus secured, they drove the horses to the storehouse to pack the carts. It took both Lyric and Dark to lift the full crates onto the cart beds. Once loaded, Lyric covered the boxes with a burlap tarp and pinned the corners, to keep them safe.  
>~ The sun had just put it's first, brilliant rays over the eastern horizon when Malon and her father escorted them down the path to see them off.<br>~ Malon embraced Lyric like a sister. "Don't wait so long before visiting again," Dark heard her murmur before releasing her with a last smile. Lyric nodded absently and turned away to shake Talon's hand. Malon grinned at Dark and embraced him as well; she felt warm and soft in his arms. "Hopefully I'll see you again sometime," she told him when she pulled away, a mischievous smile on her face. Not knowing what to say, Dark simply smiled and nodded.  
>~ Lyric mounted her horse at last, and Dark did the same, albeit less gracefully. She addressed Malon and her father. "Thank you again for your hospitality, <em>both<em> of you."  
>~ Malon waved a hand as if to brush off the words. "It was nothing, honestly. Visit more often and it'll feel less like hospitality and more like home." She beamed.<br>~ Lyric nodded. "I'll try," she replied, and Dark could hear the hedging in her voice.  
>~ Malon nodded back. "May Farore go with you," she told Lyric, her tone more solemn than he'd ever heard it. "And you Dark," she added, turning to him.<br>~ "…Thank you," he said hesitantly.  
>~ Lyric spoke up. "He doesn't know the Goddesses yet," she explained to Malon, who nodded with sudden understanding.<br>~ "Good luck, then," she told him.  
>~ Lyric flicked Sabine's reigns and, with a final wave of farewell, led the way into the pale, misty morning.<p> 


	6. Chapter 6

**The Legend of Lyric**  
><strong>Chapter 6<strong>  
><strong>~Ellarose~<strong>

~ Hyrule Field was technically a misnomer; there were too many trees for that. The miles between the ranch and the castle were among the most bare in the region, the rest being covered by patches of forest; some dense, some younger. A great deal of it was still unexplored, uninhabited. Kokiri Forest in the south-eastern corner of the kingdom was one of the few places where people actually lived. The Kokiri children had simply appeared one day, built their homes among the trees, and the birds and beasts kindly moved aside to make room for them.  
>~ The walls surrounding Hyrule Castle and the castle market were darker than Lyric remembered them being as a child. Certainly still lighter than Dark's tunic, but not the brilliant, blinding white of her childhood memories. The towers were also much darker than she recalled, and taller. The citadel seemed to be under a constant shadow, as if heavy clouds hung overhead, and no sunlight could pierce it. The nearer to the walls they came, the worse it was; singing birds fell silent, grass yellowed and died, and even the few sparse trees had a sickly look about them, all twisted and bent. More than once, Lyric would have sworn she saw a red, fiery wall from the corner of her eye, doubling the defences of the warped and twisted castle. But whenever she tried to focus on it, the red haze seemed to vanish as if it had never been.<br>~ For hours they rode in silence, the sound of the horses' hooves and the creak of the carts behind them the only sounds. No wind disturbed the branches of the trees, no animals rustled in the dry undergrowth. Their slower pace, owed to the burden of the carts, set Lyric's nerves on edge. She felt as though they were being stalked, hunted across the land, to be taken once within the cool shade of the forest. Paranoia had her reflexes hair triggered; more than once she turned around when one of the cart wheels snapped a twig lying in it's path. She couldn't relax. Every instinct said that there were unfriendly eyes watching them.  
>~ She glanced over at Dark, who seemed untroubled. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, trying to chase down the reason behind the irrational paranoia. It wasn't coming from within her, so something must have been triggering it from without.<br>~ Easing her eyes open, she once more glimpsed the translucent wall of fire in her periphery. This time, she did not look directly at it, and it remained in place. She hummed quietly, trying to pick up any resonance of active magic.  
>~ The answering din reverberated in her skull, and she sucked in air through her teeth. There was power here, and a lot of it. Ganon's sorcery must have grown formidable, indeed.<br>~ "Lyric?" Dark called a short distance ahead of her. "Are you alright?"  
>~ She wasn't aware that her horse had stopped. Lyric gently nudged Sabine's sides and they started forward again. "I'm fine," she answered reassuringly as she drew level with him. "Let's keep moving. I don't want to stop here." Her head had begun to pound. The sooner they left this dreary place behind, the better.<p>

* * *

><p>~ Somewhere, far inside of walls of blackened steel and stone, far up the tallest spire, in the highest, coldest room, something stirred. In the gloom, it opened one blazing crimson eye, then the other, and sat up.<br>~ The thing that lived in the tower cocked it's head as if listening to the whispers of the silence.  
>~ A man clad in black opened a door hidden in the shadows and stepped into the room. Seeing it was awake, he bowed slightly at the waist, no matter how much it galled him to do so. The thing that lived in the tower waved it's hand dismissively, and the man in black left, shutting the heavy wooden door quietly behind him.<br>~ It listened again, waiting for the sound to come again. A faintly musical hum resounded, for a moment only, before fading away. It smiled.  
>~ <em>There you are,<em> it said.

* * *

><p>~ "I lied to you."<br>~ "What?" Dark asked, glancing at Lyric.  
>~ They had left the castle behind, and Lyric's demeanour seemed to return to normal, though she looked a little paler in the firelight. There was a river that flowed through Hyrule and past the castle, which divided Hyrule kingdom from other provinces around it. They had crossed the border and were camping in a dense forest, a short distance from the road. Once the fire was extinguished for the night, no one travelling on the road would spot them.<br>~ "Well," Lyric hedged, "_lying_ is a bit too strong, I suppose." She fell silent a moment, and he waited for her to explain. "I had forgotten." She looked up at him, her expression solemn. "You asked me before about an Inverse Triangle, and I told you nothing like that has ever existed. Well, I was mistaken in telling you that; I had forgotten. There used to be stories…" again, she trailed off into silence. "I've heard _whispers_ of stories, no more than that. People always said the stories were old, from before the fall of the Four Kingdoms…which means they are many thousands of years old. There was something about an Inverse Triforce and a dark Goddess, but…I don't know. I always thought they were made-up. Few people ever mentioned such things, and when they did, it was in a hush." Her own voice was hushed now, as well, and Dark had to lean forward to catch her words. "I don't really know more than that. I don't know why no one has ever talked about it, or why they had to do it so secretly. I don't know any of the stories, and even if I did, I wouldn't know how much of them were true. All genuine knowledge of this seems to have slipped…right out of time."

~ Lyric, it seemed, had nothing more to say on the subject. After a while, they put the fire out and bedded down for the night. Dark declared that he would take first watch, and sent Lyric to sleep. Within moments, he heard her breathing shift into slower, more even patterns.  
>~ Dark settled in to wait, his vision already acclimated to seeing through the heavy darkness. He found this forest encampment particularly peaceful, just him and the trees. His senses sharpened to pick out the slightest noises: falling leaves, small animals rustling in the branches, the soft whisper of the breeze.<br>~ Alone with his thoughts, he mulled over what Lyric had told him. _Had_ there been a dark Goddess, once? Did the _'dark'_ bit mean she was evil, or cruel? Why did no one speak of her now? What had happened, that all of the stories had been lost?  
>~ He shook his head. Wondering would get him nowhere.<br>~ For all of Lyric's precautions on the road, they hadn't met a single soul in all the time he'd been travelling with her. Which is why it surprised him so much when the woman appeared from nowhere.  
>~ Where there was before only impenetrable darkness, there was suddenly blinding white light, the figure of a woman silhouetted in the glow. Dark let out a cry and reached for his sword, but the handle burned suddenly in his grip, and he dropped it.<br>~ The silhouetted woman spoke. _You have no need to fear me, Féin-Gach._ He ignored this completely, leapt across the doused fire to where Lyric lay sleeping and shook her shoulder roughly. She didn't stir.  
>~ "What have you done to her?" he demanded loudly.<br>~_ Peace, Féin-Gach. All is well._  
>~ He narrowed his eyes distrustfully. "Show yourself, then!"<br>~ He caught the faintest impression of a smile, before she stepped out of the light so he could see her properly.  
>~ Her face seemed familiar, though he knew he'd never met her before. He would have remembered a meeting such as this. When trying to recount the experience for Lyric the next morning, he would find himself incapable of offering the right words; this woman was indescribable.<br>~ Her raven hair, cascading down her back in a thousand woven braids, was only a shade darker than her skin. She was clad in a long, flowing dress that shifted colours as it moved; shades of pink, green, blue, yellow, and even black rippled throughout. She had a sword belted around her hips, and a circular shield on her back. Her face was beautiful, ethereal. A single inverse triangle rested exactly in the center of her forehead, so black that it seemed to absorb all light.  
>~ Slowly, Dark stood up and looked the woman in the eye. "Who…<em>are<em> you?" he asked incredulously.  
>~<em> I am the one once known as the Goddess Lilith,<em> the woman replied, her voice deep and rich. _My sisters were not the only ones responsible for the creation of the world, but they are the only ones acknowledged for it._  
>~ Dark frowned. "Why are you here?" he asked, then added quickly, "Not that I'm not…honoured by such a visit, but I don't understand…why now?"<br>~ She smiled. _I have come because you are the first person in a thousand years to ask the right questions._  
>~ "What questions?"<br>~_ Hush,_ she said gently, and gestured for him to return to his seat. As he did, she waved her hand and the fire burst back to life, casting over them its warmth and light. She settled herself beside him gracefully, the yellow-gold firelight playing across her lovely face. _Many eons ago, my golden sisters descended on the chaos that was this planet's beginnings, and offered to it their power. Din, with her strong, flaming arms, she cultivated the land and the red earth. Nayru poured her wisdom onto the earth and gave the spirit of law to the world. Farore, with her rich soul, produced all life forms who would uphold the law. The three Goddesses, their labours completed, departed for the heavens. Three golden triangles remained at the point where the Goddesses left the world. Since then, the sacred triangles have become a basis of your world's providence. The resting place of the triangles has become the Sacred Realm._  
>~<em> Or so the old legends would have you believe.<em>  
>~<em> The truth is that my sisters created the world, while I made the space surrounding it. I offered to this world the sky, the sun, the moon and stars. Some will tell you that a dark Goddess can only <strong>offer<strong> darkness, but it was I who brought the light._  
>~<em> My sisters, their work complete, departed this world, leaving behind the Triforce of Destiny. I left my dark reflection of it, the Inverse Triforce, to balance this world. They were delighted to create life and offer it a chance, but thought nothing of what would come when life ended. All that lives in the universe comes to me in the end.<em>  
>~ "So you're death," Dark murmured, unthinking.<br>~_ And rebirth,_ she explained adamantly. _Death is a natural part of life, or living would not be as precious as it is. But it is into my arms that all life comes to rest in peace at the end of it._  
>~ Dark nodded. "I understand. Then what?"<br>~ The Goddess nodded her regal head and continued. _The golden Triforce was prized by the kings of man, and was broken up, each piece to reside in one of three great kingdoms._  
>~ "But wait, I thought there were four kingdoms?" Dark cut in, and could have bitten his tongue off for interrupting.<br>~ Her expression, to his shock, turned wistful. _The fourth kingdom belonged to me._  
>~<em> The people of the fourth kingdom were devoted to me, more so than to the other Goddesses. These four great lands, with their wise and virtuous leaders, lived for many, many generations in peace. It was the Golden Age, and I have not seen its like since.<em>  
><em>~ Disaster came then, as it will. The wise leaders were killed in great wars that swept the lands and covered all in darkness. A great evil had come, and it seemed that none were powerful enough to stand against it. Any that dared were consumed, their very souls lost to the great evil. It was bent on obtaining the golden Triforce, for if assembled, would make it's possessor the ruler of the world. This evil had already destroyed my people, by manipulating the fears of the others and turning them against their dark brethren, making them forget that darkness does not equate to evil. The last of my people hid the Inverse Triforce away, before they too were tracked down and slaughtered.<em>  
>~<em> It seemed as though the evil would succeed in ruining all that we had built, when from this chaos emerged six Sages, two from each of the three fallen kingdoms. They managed to unite the Triforce and end the war. The evil was defeated, and it slunk off to a deep corner of the world, never to be seen again. These six Sages built the Temple of Time and created a gateway through which only one who is complete and whole in self could pass. This became the entrance to the Sacred Realm. They sealed it with many layers of protection: the Master Sword is the key, resting in the lock of the Pedestal of Time, behind the Door of Time, which can only be opened with the Song of Time played on the Ocarina of Time.<em>  
>~ Dark bit back a smile. "That's a lot of <em>time,<em>" he couldn't help but tease.  
>~ The Goddess grinned back. <em>It is.<em> But then her smile faded. _This new evil worries me, Féin-Gach. I am afraid that the Old One, who was defeated but not destroyed, will return to try again. I do not know that the people of this world are strong enough to withstand such devastation a second time._ She looked so sad that Dark instinctively reached out to comfort her. An inch from her arm, he paused, and let his hand fall to his side.  
>~ "What can we do to stop it?" he asked instead.<br>~ She smiled at him, then, and the very air around them seemed to glow. _Learn to use your powers,_ she declared.  
>~ "What, everyone? How do we—" but the Goddess was shaking her head, and he broke off.<br>~_ I mean **you** Féin-Gach. You and Dearcadh, and the Cariad, when you eventually meet._  
>~ "M-me? I don't—" but this time, it was the Goddess who interrupted.<br>~_ You do not have enough faith in yourself, Féin-Gach. You have trusted my words thus far. Trust me now when I tell you that you are more powerful than you know. Dearcadh will not want to believe it, either. However, she has already begun to use her abilities._  
>~ "But <em>why?<em>" he asked in exasperation. "Why _me?_ I'm no one. I'm just this…" words failed him. "This…creature, devised by an evil man to kill her brother," he explained lamely, gesturing to Lyric. "I'm not…_worthy._"  
>~ The Dark Goddess Lilith regarded him silently for a long time. He grew uncomfortable under her scrutiny, and fought not to fidget. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she spoke. <em>So I am mistaken, then, and the Great Fairy of Power did not offer you a chance to make your own choice, for good or evil?<em> She was still staring at him. _The Great Fairy of Power did not come to you the night you were created and offer you a soul?_ The Goddess stood, looking down her nose at him. _You did not accept this soul? Or rather, you made the choice for evil? The Great Fairy, a dear friend of mine, one of the first beings created in this world, did **not,** in fact, tell you of these things directly when you visited her two suns ago?_  
>~ Dark couldn't stay silent a moment longer. "She did!" he cried. "She did, but I—"<br>~_ But you did not believe her. Or perhaps you do not understand the implications of such a thing._ She brushed off her long dress, which touched the tops of her bare feet, and stepped away from him around the fire. _Féin-Gach, if you do not believe me, no one will ever convince you. Your lineage as Ganondorf's servant does not dictate the person you are now, nor the person you will become. The only person who can ever make any choice for you ever again is **you.** Even I cannot take that from you. You are your own person, Féin-Gach, whole and complete within yourself. That is they key to your power, and to your destiny._  
>~ "I'm not sure I'm up for having a destiny," Dark replied a bit desperately.<br>~ The Dark Goddess Lilith smiled once more. _You could choose to turn your back on it,_ she told him, _but I know that if you follow this path, walk with Dearcadh, you will find everything you could ever hope for._  
>~<em> It will not be easy,<em> she added, starting to fade into the brilliant white light from whence she had appeared, _but nothing worthwhile ever is._ The light grew brighter still, until he couldn't see her at all.  
>~ In the next instant, she was gone. No puff of smoke, no fanfare, nothing. The campsite was pitch black again, as if she had never been. Even the fire was out. Dark blinked rapidly in the gloom, trying to allow his eyes to adjust to the night.<br>The voice of the Goddess echoed through his mind for a final time. _When the road becomes difficult, remember that I walk beside you. Blessed be, Féin-Gach._ And then she truly was gone, leaving Dark with just as many questions as he had before, more unanswerable than ever.

* * *

><p>~ "You're <em>sure<em> that's what she said?" Lyric asked Dark for the third time.  
>~ "Yes, I'm <em>sure,<em>" he shot back, sounding exasperated. She didn't blame him for being irritated with the question, but it seemed so hard to wrap her head around. "You weren't there, you didn't hear her."  
>~ They had departed not long after daybreak and were well on their way to Ellarose. Lyric estimated they'd reach the small farming community by noon. The entire ride, she had grilled Dark about his meeting with this Goddess she'd never heard of, appearing coincidentally right after she had told him that such a deity might once have existed.<br>~ "I'm sorry. It's just…" she trailed off. "I've read pretty much every history book I could get my hands on. I've never heard anything like _this._"  
>~ "I told you. She said your historians have got it wrong."<br>~ They fell silent, and Lyric mulled over the story her partner had told her. Part of her wanted to reject it altogether, but the still, quiet part of her, the part where her instincts and intuition came from, said that not only was he _telling_ her the truth, but that he had been _told_ the truth.

~ Lyric knew they were nearly there when the crossed the stone bridge over the River Aeron.  
>~ She cleared her throat. "We're nearly there," she told Dark. Sure enough, the rounded a bend in the road and directly ahead was a large sign welcoming them to Ellarose.<br>~ The ridge of mountains to their right kept Ellarose somewhat cut off from Hyrule, but this made the land and soil rich with minerals; perfect for farming. The community had been there for thousands of years, all the way back to Hyrule's humble beginnings. There were still not many who lived in Ellarose. Most of the land was taken up by fields of various crops.  
>~ The citizens of Ellarose, called Hoblings, kept no livestock, and because of this, ate no red meat. All the work was done by their own hands. The Hoblings had some of magic of their own, but it was mostly earth-oriented: things to help make the peas grow, things to stop the rivers from flooding, or from drying up, things to make the strawberries especially sweet.<br>~ Nearly everything in Ellarose was hand-made in the village. What they couldn't make themselves, they traded for. Before Ganon had come along and disrupted the trade routes, Ellarose had done steady business with Lon-Lon Ranch by trading wheat and hay in return for the ranch's famous milk. Anything that couldn't be obtained by trade or cultivation, they did without.  
>~ Lyric slowed her horse before they entered Ellarose properly, and dismounted, taking Sabine's reigns. Dark stopped Archer and did the same.<br>~ "What's wrong?" he asked quietly once she drew level with him.  
>~ "Nothing is wrong," she replied honestly, "but I want to warn you anyway. Hoblings do <em>not<em> look like Hylians."  
>~ She paused, and he looked quizzically at her. "So?"<br>~ "So I just wanted you to be aware that they won't look like the people you have seen so far, so you're not surprised. They're wonderful people. I just wasn't…sure how you would react, alright?"  
>~ He just stared at her. "Lyric, I was formed out of nothing by the most evil man Hyrule has seen in a thousand years. Even if I <em>did<em> have some kind of weird…what's the word? Some kind of _problem_ with people who don't look like _you,_ I'd still be more out of place than them in any setting."  
>~ "Prejudice," Lyric said with a wry grin. "I'm glad you feel like that, though don't be so hard on yourself." She punched his shoulder gently. "Let's go, then."<br>~ Leading their horses gently by the reigns, they crossed under the timber welcome sign, now weathered with age. The sun was shining brilliantly overhead, and it seemed all the brighter after the shaded forest path. Dark put his free hand up to shade his eyes, looking around with interest.  
>~ Lyric, her spirits lighter than they had been for days, couldn't help smiling hugely as they surveyed the community. It was one of her favourite places in the world.<p>

* * *

><p>~ "Welcome to Ellarose!" Lyric proclaimed with a grin as Dark stood back, taking it all in.<br>~ The path they stood on diverged almost immediately around a tall signpost directing them to various areas of Ellarose. Directly down the road to his right, Dark could see miles of agriculture, fenced off from public access. To their left ran another road that seemed to lead into the settlement, where the citizens who did not look like typical Hylians must live. He could see thatched rooftops of gold or brown in the distance.  
>~ "Come on," Lyric said at last, tugging on his sleeve, and pointed to a much nearer building he had missed. "Visitor's Centre." She led the way down the left fork, and he followed, still gazing around. There were not as many trees here as he had grown accustomed to seeing, but clumps of bushes lined the roads instead.<br>~ They reached the squat building at last, with a "Welcome!" sign hanging over the circular door. His partner knocked twice and waited. A gruff voice called them to come inside.  
>~ Lyric opened the door and poked her head in. "Hugo!" she called. "Hugo, it's me, Lyric! Malon's sent me with your milk, where do you want it?"<br>~ "Oh, Lyric, am I ever glad ter see _you!_" the gruff voice was louder now, and after a moment the door swung wide open. "Let me get a look at yeh! Yeh've grown _so_ much!"  
>~ The owner of the voice, Hugo, must have been one of the Hoblings Lyric had mentioned. She was right, they didn't look alike.<br>~ The man was about three feet tall, with brown skin like leather, and large, bulbous eyes set far apart in his squashed-tomato face. His ears were even larger and pointier than Lyric's, and stuck out from his head like bat's wings. His large nose and broad mouth, turned up at the corners, gave him a perpetually cheerful expression, even when serious. He only had three fingers on each hand, considerably thicker and longer than a Hylian's. All of his clothes were slightly threadbare, but obviously well-worn and well cared-for. Lyric stooped low to hug the little man tightly, then straightened.  
>"Hugo, this is my partner, Dark. Dark, this is Hugo, an old friend."<br>~ "Nice ter meet yeh, young man. What exactly are yer intentions toward our girl, here?" Hugo asked Dark, holding out his hand.  
>~ Dark gripped his forearm, as Lach had told him, and passed that hurdle with seemingly no problem. "My intentions?" Dark asked, releasing Hugo at last. He glanced at Lyric for clarification.<br>~ She rolled her eyes. "His _intention_ is to deliver your _milk,_ not play question games with you at the door. Come on, then!" She shooed Hugo inside, beckoning Dark after her. They left the horses where they were and stepped into the Centre.  
>~ The room was tiny and crowded, though by no means uncomfortable. Papers and books were stacked everywhere, charts and graphs were pinned haphazardly to the walls, and there were only two small, circular windows to allow light into the room. A great stone fireplace dominated most of one wall, behind a counter that extended halfway into the room. Dark and Lyric both had to stoop to keep from bumping their heads on the ceiling.<br>~ Hugo slipped behind the counter as Lyric drew from her miraculous bag a scroll of parchment paper sealed with red wax. She handed it over. The hobling broke the seal and unfurled it, reading it over. He smiled.  
>~ "She's thrown in an extra case fer takin' so long, she's such a dear," he chuckled, signing his name at the bottom. "Hope those marauders don't get <em>these,<em> too," he muttered.  
>"What was that?"<br>~ "Hmm?" Hugo asked, looking up. "Oh, the marauders. Don't yeh worry yer pretty head about it, girl, these things happen. Nothing yeh could do, anyway."  
>~ Lyric frowned. "What's going on, Hugo? Tell me."<br>~ He handed her back the scroll, shaking his head. "E'en if I wanted teh, I couldn't. Not allowed teh discuss it with outsiders. Come on, then, let's find a place for this delivery, eh?"  
>~ She followed him to the door, still frowning. "Since when am I an outsider?"<br>~ "Since yeh stayed away so long!" he replied over his shoulder. He went right to Sabine, reaching up to pat her flank, which was the highest spot he could reach. Finally, he circled around to the back of the cart and lifted the burlap to check what was underneath. He grinned.  
>~ "Ah, it's been an age since we've had milk up here," the hobling said wistfully. "Hopefully Malon can get these trade routes open again, and get things back ter normal!"<br>~ Lyric sighed, crossing her arms and leaning against the doorframe. "Hugo…"  
>~ He turned to look at her. "Yeh always were too nosy fer yer own good," he snapped, but there was a glimmer of amusement in his brown eyes. "I told yeh, I can't tell yeh nothin'. Although," he added, looking thoughtful, "yeh might talk to Tassilo Button. He's Head Hob, now."<br>~ Lyric straightened up, surprise spilling across her face. "_Tassilo?_ What happened to Malaric Knotwise?"  
>~ Hugo looked sad. "Died last year, of the ague. Which yeh'd <em>know,<em>" he added, shooting her a look, "if yeh hadn't stayed away so long!"  
>~ Dark glanced at Lyric, who looked sad, but asked, "<em>Tassilo,<em> though? Who in their right mind agreed to make him Head Hob?"  
>~ Hugo started away from them down the path. Dark took Archer's reigns and carefully directed the horse around, compensating for the heavy cart. Lyric did the same, and the hobling led them further into Ellarose, toward a long, low building that sat apart from the others.<br>~ "Ah, Tassilo isn't so bad nowadays. He's mellowed a bit in the last few years," Hugo told them. "He finally settled down when Lalia agreed to take him for a husband."  
>~ Lyric snorted at this. "Yeah, right."<br>"Goddess' honest truth, my girl," Hugo promised.  
>~ Lyric made a small noise of surprise, but kept her thoughts to herself for the rest of the walk.<br>~ At long last, they reached the big house. Hugo led them to a huge, circular blue door, and knocked in a pattern of three. There was a long pause. Hugo knocked again.  
>~ "I'm comin', I'm comin', keep yer bloody shirts on, yeh good fer nothin'…" the hobling who opened the door stopped dead in the middle of his grousing and stared up at Lyric. "Well, then! Look who's come back ter visit all these years later!" the second hobling, clad entirely in green, declared as he looked her over with a critical eye.<br>~ Lyric shrugged sheepishly. "I missed you too, Grimbald."  
>~ Grimbald waved off her comments dismissively. "Can't have missed us too much, or yeh'd've come back sooner, wouldn't yeh?" he grumbled.<br>~ Hugo cleared his throat, and Grimbald shot him a look. "And what do _yeh_ want, Hugo Tunnelly? Yer supposed to be at the Centre all day today, and good riddance."  
>~ Hugo ignored the other hobling's bellyaching. "Is Tassilo round? Lyric needs a word with him about the…marauders," he said in a hush.<br>~ Grimbald's expression darkened further. "Those damn bastards. Aye, Tassilo's in. He's with the missus and the babe. Just a minute." He disappeared back inside the long house, leaving them to stand on the stoop.  
>~ Hugo sighed in irritation. "That Hob has <em>no<em> manners."  
>~ "Never did," Lyric added with a grin.<br>~ They waited patiently for Grimbald to return with Tassilo. Dark looked around in curiosity, enjoying the atmosphere of this place. A large sign on the front of the house, which he had not previously noticed, declared this to be _Ballycuil._  
>~ Lyric noticed him noticing, and whispered, "Ballycuil, home's corner."<br>~ Dark nodded, not knowing what to say. At that moment, the door opened again and out came Grimbald with a hobling who could only be Tassilo Button, Head Hob.  
>~ "Lyric!" the newcomer cried joyfully, hugging her around the waist. She returned the gesture. "It's been an age. Come in, come in, so sorry that Grimbald's left your out in the cold." He waved them in behind him.<br>~ "It's hardly cold, Tassilo, it's only second harvest," Lyric replied, chuckling. "We need a place to put our horses, though, and unload them as well."  
>~ Tassilo glanced back. "Ah," he murmured. "We'll put the delivery inside. Hopefully that'll keep it safe enough from those accursed marauders!"<br>~ Dark and Lyric unloaded the crates from Sabine and carried them inside, Tassilo directing them to a back corner of a room already packed with foodstuffs. Then they transferred one of the crates bound for Airas onto the empty cart and covered them once more.  
>~ Tassilo led them around Ballycuil and into a wide meadow, which ended abruptly at a high fence backed right up to the forest surrounding their borders. Dark and Lyric unhitched the horses and stowed the carts under piles of fallen tree boughs, until they were sufficiently camouflaged.<br>~ Thus freed, Archer and Sabine wandered off together to graze on the sweet grass. The tired pair of warriors retired inside Ballycuil with the hoblings. Introductions were made, all of the pleasantries seen to. The unlikely group settled around a large, scrubbed wooden table. Tassilo brought out plates of food, wine, and a fresh green salad. Only when everyone was seated with their food and drinks did anyone speak.  
>~ "Tassilo," Lyric said, expression grim. "Tell me everything."<p>

* * *

><p>~ "Tell me everything," Lyric asked her old friend solemnly.<br>~ Tassilo sighed, putting down his fork. "There isn't much to tell. There's been a group of men, _Hylian-sized_ men, mark you, thieving out in the fields at night. They've made off with a fair bit of our crop already, and it isn't even officially second harvest for another half-week. I thought I could reason with them. We're perfectly open to selling or trading, but they'll have none of that. They want everything for nothing, and I fear what would happen to my people if I were to try and stop them." He exhaled heavily, and Lyric could see how much Tassilo had changed, matured. "We're not warriors, none of us. We have no power to stop bandits," he muttered, rubbing his fingers together. From nowhere, a tiny green vine began to grow right between his fingers, budding out with a tiny, delicate leaf.  
>~ Beside her, Dark caught his breath. <em>Hobling magic.<em>  
>~ "Show off," she muttered, and Tassilo grinned. He stood, heading for a small row of earthenware pots lined up on the floor by the window. Gently, he placed the tiny sprout in the soil within and returned to them, his expression grave.<br>~ "I don't know how we can preserve our way of life here if we are to be set upon by brigands and thieves. Once, we could have contacted King Daphnes for help, but…" he trailed off, and Lyric nodded, stony-faced.  
>~<em> Once, they could have petitioned for help, and would certainly have gotten it, if it were not for Ganon. Damn him for this.<em>  
>~ "The strangest thing," he continued, "is how they seem to constantly evade our patrols. Bero, one of Alberic's boys, spotted them when he was on patrol with Everard. We might never have known how it happening without them."<br>Lyric frowned. Everard Rumblefoot, who considered the simple way of life here beneath him—and let everyone know it. Everard Rumblefoot, who never lifted a finger to help anyone unless there was something in it for him. Offering to help watch over the crops didn't seem like something he would do, but maybe he'd changed. She gestured for Tassilo to elaborate.  
>~ "On Everard's night a few weeks ago, Bero said that he spotted a large group of Hylian-sized men carrying bushel baskets of crops from our fields and out the back road. He shouted for help, but one of the men apparently came up behind them, and hit him quite hard on the head. By the time we found Bero, they were gone." Tassilo was frowning again. "At least three, he says, though likely more."<br>~ "What does Everard say about it?" she asked, trying to keep her tone casual. By Tassilo's expression, she knew she'd failed.  
>~ "He says he didn't see anything at all, but then, he's got a bruise of his own."<br>~ Lyric nodded complacently, and changed direction. "Look," she said, taking up her fork and digging into her food once more. "I can't stay all winter to help. I wish I could, but I at least have that other delivery to make to Airas, which is no short trip, especially with the road conditions as they are. _But,_" she added forcefully, "I will stay long enough to help you get rid of these _marauders._ I owe you so much more, but I can do that, at the very least."  
>~ "I doubt we would need you all winter, anyway," Tassilo answered, and Grimbald nodded in agreement. "Once all of the harvest is in from the fields, t'will be a lot easier to protect."<br>~ "Plus," Grimbald added, "as I'm sure yeh remember, the snows come early here, down from the mountains. The ice will come, and no one'll want ter try and get through those forests just to steal some potatoes."  
>~ Lyric grinned. The forests around Ellarose had never been cleared or explored much, and there were old stories about the strange creatures that lived there, devouring any man foolish enough to wander into the shadows.<br>~ Tassilo took a long draught from his stein before continuing. "Such an offer is greatly appreciated, but I cannot let you take such a risk. There are many of them, and only one of you."  
>~ Lyric opened her mouth to correct him, but Dark beat her to it. "She wouldn't be alone," he said pointedly. "I work for her. And if you know her half as well as you seem to, you'd know that sword on her back is not merely for show." She raised an eyebrow at him for his less than diplomatic response, but he just shrugged and went back to eating.<br>~ Grimbald grumbled, but Tassilo laughed. "Right you are, my boy. Three to one is not very good odds, even for Lyric," (she privately disagreed) "but three to two is better. Very well, then. We will accept your offer."  
>~ He raised his stein. She did the same, and they clinked their glasses together before drinking deeply.<br>~ "I believe this calls for a celebration!" he declared when he had set his mug down again. "Grimbald, Hugo, let our friends know that tonight, we shall make merry, for this scourge is soon to be defeated!"

~ The hoblings flew into a flurry of excitement, then, to make preparations for their guests. Lyric and Dark thought it best not to be underfoot, and ducked out of Ballycuil for a few hours.  
>~ She took him on a tour of the community, showing him the homes down in Accasbel Corner, where most of the grape-growers and wine-makers had lived for generations untold. She showed him the windmill beside Lake Yonne, and pointed out the dock where one could try and fish in the lake. She showed him Tuiam Hill, near the Ellarosean Temple, where all of the hoblings of Ellarose had been laid to rest over the centuries. Cracked, weathered stones stood side by side in quiet rows; much of the engravings had been almost completely lost to time.<br>~ Here, they split up; Dark strolled up and down the rows one at a time, gazing at the intricately carved monuments of old. Lyric was looking for one in particular.  
>~ It didn't take long for her to find the place; the marble still shone white in the sun, almost blinding amongst its lacklustre fellows.<p>

_**~Malaric Knotwise~**_

_Now lay me down here without tears,_  
><em>For I have had joy in all of my years.<em>  
><em>Leave me to my quiet rest<em>  
><em>In the Sacred Realm of the blessed.<em>

~ Lyric's eyes pricked with unspent sorrow. Malaric had been a good leader of his people. She wasn't at all sure if Tassilo was up to the challenges of these darker times.  
>~ She had just laid down her grave gifts when she heard Dark calling her name. Nodding one last farewell to her old friend, she set off between the stones.<br>~ "What is it?" she asked Dark when she found him a few rows away. He was staring down at one of the hobling tombstones.  
>~ "Look," he said, pointing.<br>~ She came around to see what had transfixed him so. There, on the grave stone—clearly inscribed—was an inverse triangle. Just one, not three together, but it was such a synch that she could only stare.  
>~ "If I weren't seeing it with my own eyes, I wouldn't believe it," she murmured.<br>~ "What do you think it means?" Dark asked.  
>~ "It means," Lyric replied, "that we are on the right path."<p>

~ The party that night was spectacular, one of the largest Ellarose had seen in recent years. The people of Hyrule, and therefore the people in the surrounding lands as well, had had precious little to celebrate of late. Winters had been growing colder, harvests grew steadily smaller, each day bleaker than the one before it. But tonight, it was as if nothing could go wrong. Hoblings from all over Ellarose—people Lyric hadn't seen in years—gathered into Ballycuil, intent on the merrymaking that would soon take place.  
>~ Food was abound. On every available surface were homemade pies, stews, cakes, loaves of steaming bread, and wine, as well as fresh fruits and vegetables. Tassilo had cleared the largest room in Ballycuil for dancing, a pastime that hoblings had a keen appreciation for.<br>~ One rowdy, spirited song was played after another; the room was full of smoke and laughter. Elder hoblings sat around small circular tables, puffing away on long smoking-pipes, discussing the harvest. Women who had been too busy with their children or the crops to gossip sat whispering together, giggling like children again, the weight of recent years lifted from their shoulders for a night. Younglings ran in and out of rooms, tripping over their own feet and laughing until they were breathless.  
>~ Many of the little ones came to say their hellos to Lyric, who cooed over each one, exclaiming at how big they'd grown since she'd last seen them, offering praise for every achievement they described, no matter how small. Dark stood awkwardly behind her, clutching a stein of wine. She rolled her eyes and decided on the spot that she wouldn't let him hover over her shoulder all night.<br>~ She introduced him to the younglings; they were fascinated with him. Most were too young to remember when Ellarose had been a major trade center, and aside from Lyric, had never seen a "big person" before. They took him by both hands and dragged him into the fray, Dark hunching over so they could keep hold of him, laughing all the while.

~ Lyric wandered through the party for a while, stopping by Tassilo's table to thank him profusely for his generosity, as was customary. He dismissed her thanks with an easygoing smile, which was also traditional.  
>~ The social niceties having been observed, she retired to a smoky corner, where some of the elders were talking in hushed voices. They shifted around to make room for her and resumed their discussion.<br>~ She listened to them debate the apple harvest this year, whether they had had enough rain or not. Fosco Goodchild, the hob on her left, seemed to have nothing to say, either, and the two sat in a companionable silence.  
>~ When her mug was nearly empty, she turned to Fosco. "What do you know of these marauders?" she asked in an undertone.<br>~ A hush fell over the table. All eyes turned to her.  
>~ "Not much, lass," he replied in his rasping voice. "Less'n I'd like to, certainly."<br>~ "When we catch them—"  
>~ "<em>If<em> ye catch the marauders," Everard Rumblefoot interrupted rudely. "_If._"  
>~ Everard. The one who had flat-out denied seeing the thieves, and therefore denied their very existence. She bared her teeth at him in a menacing smile. "Oh," she said silkily, "I have <em>no doubt<em> that it will be _when,_ Everard."  
>~ "I do," he shot back.<br>~ She held his gaze until he dropped his eyes. "That's your opinion," she said dismissively. "So, Fosco," she continued, turning her back on the surly Everard, "_when_ we catch the marauders, what do you think Tassilo wants done with them?"  
>Fosco eyed her warily. "Did ye ask Tassilo?"<br>~ She had not, and he saw the answer in her face.  
>~ "What do <em>you<em> want done with them?" she asked, changing tactics.  
>~ He snorted. "Tha's not fer me ter decide, lass, and thank the Goddess fer that."<br>~ "But Tassilo often looks to you for advice and direction," she countered.  
>~ "An' who told you such things?"<br>~ Lyric shrugged. "Everyone."  
>~ Fosco gazed at her in silence for several minutes, puffing slowly on his pipe. She met his gaze steadily. Finally, he answered. "We've no gaol here, ye know. They aught ter be made ter pay for what they've stolen, else work off the debt."<br>~ Lyric nodded. "And if, for some reason, that is impossible?"  
>~ Everard spoke up again. "Kill 'em, quick-like."<br>~ Everyone present turned to stare at him. "What?" Everard demanded, surly again. "We cannae keep 'em here. If they cannae work, what good's keepin' 'em alive?"  
>~ She fixed her gaze on him. "And who would be the one to wield that blade?" she asked. The gathered hobs shifted uncomfortably, looking everywhere but at Lyric, lest they be charged with the burden themselves. Lyric remained focused on Everard. "You?"<br>~ He met her gaze for longer this time, regarding her silently. Finally, he laughed and looked away, breaking the tension. "O' course not, warrior. Tha's what yer for."

* * *

><p>~ Dark had spent what felt like mere minutes entertaining and playing with the younglings, but it must have been far longer, for his belly began to grumble in hunger, and he left them to their games of hide-and-seek. He wandered aimlessly through Ballycuil, unsure of what the social customs were, and how to navigate them.<br>~ "You look lost," a voice said at his elbow. He looked down to see a lady hobling he vaguely recognized.  
>~ "I'm Lalia, Tassilo's wife," she kindly reminded him. "What're you seeking?"<br>~ His stomach rumbled noisily before he could formulate a reply. "Food, apparently," she answered herself with a laugh. "Come with me." He followed her through the haze of pipe smoke and laughter to a warm, cramped room. Here, she directed him to have a seat at one of the crowded tables before disappearing into the kitchen. Tassilo, carrying on a boisterous conversation at a circular table across the room, spotted him loitering at the door and waved him over.  
>~ "Have a seat, my boy!" Tassilo declared when he reached them. "Join the fun!" Dark grinned and obliged. It wasn't long before Lalia returned with a dish for him, loaded with roasted potatoes, greens, and a piece of fried fish. He expressed his gratitude and dug in as soon as the plate hit the table; he was hungrier than he'd realised. Tassilo and a few of the other hobs laughed at this, and resumed their conversation. For several minutes, he simply ate in happy silence; everything was delicious, and he saw no reason to ruin the moment of enjoyment with talk.<br>~ As Dark finished up the last of his meal, Tassilo pulled from his coat a small metal box with a red painted lid. Upon opening it, Dark saw it was filled with greenish-brown flakes of some plant.  
>~ Tassilo glanced up at him. "Never smoked before, have you?" Dark shook his head. "Would you like to try?"<br>~ Dark pondered for a moment, then nodded.  
>~ Tassilo pulled from his overcoat a long, thin pipe with a bell-like dish on one end. He took a pinch of the flakes and sprinkled them into the bowl, then packed it down. He repeated this process twice more, until it was packed quite full, but not overflowing. He then took a wooden stick from his coat and lit it on a nearby candle. Moving the tiny flame in a circle around the rim of the bowl, he puffed gently on it until the flakes inside were lit. Here he stopped and waited for the light to go out before repeating the action again. This time, the embers stayed lit, and as he drew on the end of the pipe, they glowed brightly.<br>~ "There you go, lad," he said at last, passing the pipe to Dark. "Breathe it in, but don't inhale. This is for flavor, not for your lungs."  
>~ Hesitantly, Dark stuck the end of the pipe in his mouth and breathed; immediately, a warm, smoky blast of air touched his tongue and he stopped, pulling the pipe out again. He blew the smoke out in a cloudy puff.<br>~ "Try again," Tassilo instructed. "The first few puffs will feel awkward, but you'll soon get the hang of it."  
>~ Obediently, he tried again. This time, he knew what to expect, and as the hot air dissipated, he could taste smoky vanilla and kavà as well.<br>~ He exhaled the smoke again. "This is…" he was at a loss for words.  
>~ "Do you like it, then?" Tassilo asked. Dark nodded enthusiastically. He passed the pipe back to it's owner, who took it with a smug smile. "This is the best tobacco around. The vanilla and kavà comes from the south; the tobacco we grow here, ourselves. This was one of our biggest trade items, once. Hopefully someday, it will be again." Tassilo's expression was wistful. "Someday."<p>

~ Hours had passed, Dark realised, and he had no idea where Lyric was. He had already adjusted to her sleep patterns, and was beginning to tire. Politely, he excused himself from Tassilo's table and set off to find her.  
>~ He discovered her sitting alone in a corner, a pensive expression on her face.<br>~ "What are you doing here, sitting all alone?" he asked, startling her out of her musing. He claimed an abandoned chair and sat down beside her. "What's wrong?"  
>~ Lyric blinked, as if still half-lost in thought, then shook her head. "Nothing. Just thinking about what to do about these thieves."<br>~ Dark frowned. "I'm all for being prepared, but this party tonight is in honour of _you._ Come on, let's join the fun." He stood, pulling her up with him He steadfastly ignored her half-formed protests. Lyric was far from weak, and could have pulled away if she wanted to.  
>~ Her hand stayed wrapped in his.<br>~ They wove through the crowded house, over a foot taller than anyone else present, heading directly for the music. At the edge of the dance floor, she stopped. He looked back, his hand still outstretched to her in invitation.  
>~ "I don't dance," she told him, raising her voice over the din of music and laughter.<br>~ He smirked. "You think I do?" He spread his arms wide, indicating the people prancing around the room to the lively tune. "All you have do to is watch and follow the music. Come on, Lyric. If you can fight, I _know_ you can dance."  
>He took her hand again, still not holding on compulsively tight and, still, she did not pull away. They joined the dance just as a new tune began. At first, Lyric just stood there awkwardly, but the hoblings jostling her left and right seemed to help her find the beat. Soon she was moving on her own, clapping her hands, kicking up her heels, grinning hugely at him. He had been right, he knew. If she could fight, she sure as hell could dance.<br>~ Dark linked his right arm around her left and they spun in circles, feet stomping in happy rhythm. She let go and spun away, but made her way back, kicking up her knees and laughing, face flushed and eyes sparkling. A curly-haired hobling took her hand spun her away, laughing as she went. He released her as another hobling took her other hand and did the same, sending her right back to Dark again.  
>~ The song increased in tempo, winding itself up for the finale, and they increased their speed accordingly, stomping their feet hard, wildly kicking out their legs. They skipped and pranced and spun, laughing breathless. The song increased again and the pair all but flew, leaping into the air, not caring how silly they may have looked and simply moving for the joy of it.<br>~ The song rose to a crescendo and ended with a dramatic crashing of cymbals. Dark stood across the room from Lyric, both flushed and breathing heavily. It was then that he looked around and realised that the hoblings were all standing away from them, against the walls, cheering and laughing. Lyric grinned a little sheepishly, but the shine of delight in her eyes remained. The hoblings spilled back onto the dance floor as the band took up another jaunty number, but Lyric waved him to the side. They met at one of the archways, and stepped together out of the room. Wordlessly, Lyric pointed at the front door, and he nodded. She slipped out the door unnoticed, and Dark followed close behind.

~ Outside under the stars, the air was refreshingly cold after the heat and excitement of the dance. They could still hear the rowdy bunch of hoblings, and Dark smiled to himself. Not wanting to break the companionable silence between them, he indicated that they should meander away from the house to get a breath of air.  
>~ Away from Ballycuil the night was softer, calmer, and when they reached the border fence, they sat down. Dark leaned his back against the fence and gazed up at the inky black sky, strewn with stars. There was no moon tonight, just quiet starlight. He glanced at his partner from the corner of his eye.<br>~ She too was watching the sky. "Thank you for that," she said quietly. "Sometimes I…get a little too bogged down in seriousness, forget that parties are meant to be enjoyed."  
>~ Instead of answering right away, he considered her words. She said nothing more, content to simply enjoy the moment.<br>~ Eventually they decided that they'd been away long enough. They got to their feet, brushing grass blades from their clothes, and returned to the house. Just before Lyric went inside, Dark touched her arm. She looked at him questioningly.  
>~ "As long as I'm…as long as you want me around, I'll make sure you don't forget."<br>~ "Forget what?"  
>~ "How to smile. I'll make sure you remember."<p> 


End file.
